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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 




Charles Wesley. 




Samuel Francis Smith. 



Favorite Hymns 



AND THEIR AUTHORS. 



A BOOK OF BIOGRAPHY, 
HISTORY AND POETRY. 

CONTAINING SKETCHES OF ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY- 
FIVE FAMOUS POETS AND HYMN-WRITERS, WITH 
SELECTIONS FROM THEIR BEST HYMNS, AND 
CHOICE QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER POEMS. 



1[ For Home Reading, Praise Services, and for Reference by 
Pastors and others, in preparing Programs for Meetings in which 
Hymns and their Authors have a prominent part. 

Compiled by W. ROWENA EDGERTON 




Press of Eagle Printing and Binding Co., 

PlTTSFIELD, jMaSSACHUSETTS. 



LIBRARY of C0NaBE8S| 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 29 5 90? 

WJowrigUi Lfcntry 
5LASS Q- XXc. No. | 
COPY &c 



Copyright, 1907, 
By W. Rowena Edgerton 






FOREWORD. 



Students of Hymnology, who have read numerous works 
on that subject, have doubtless noted the fact that many 
writers have devoted much space to criticisms, the romance 
of hymns, or "hymn-myths," and by extended remarks and 
suggestions of their own have, in some cases, rendered the 
personality of the compiler so pervasive that it has over- 
shadowed the authors of whom they have treated. Such 
works have been very useful in moulding the opinions and 
tastes of people who were uninformed, or incapable of form- 
ing just opinions of their own. They have raised the stand- 
ard of hymnody in the churches, and have prepared the 
people to judge more correctly of the merits of the authors 
and their hymns. 

So many excellent works, combining a treatise on Hym- 
nology with the Story of the Hymns, have already been pub- 
lished, there appears to be no demand at the present time 
for another book of that character. But there seems to be 
room for a book in which the space shall be almost wholly 
occupied by the lives and works of the authors, allowing them 
to speak for themselves, and leaving the verdict of their 
merits to the reader. 

It is related of Dr. Horatius Bonar, who was one of the 
most popular hymn-writers of the nineteenth century, that 
"so much was his poetry a part of himself that his daughter, 
Mrs. Dods, was able to write an excellent article on Dr. 
Bonar, in 1897, which deals with his poetry autobiographic- 
ally." He had expressed the wish that his works might be 
his only memorial, and he was, indeed, remembered as he 
had hoped to be, — 

"Yes, but remembered bv what I have done." 



iv FOREWORD. 

Doubtless many of the authors who have been the vic- 
tims of so much criticism, favorable, or unfavorable, by the 
writers of works on Hymnology, would be glad of an oppor- 
tunity to be remembered simply by what they have done. 

The editor of this book has endeavored, by very brief 
original remarks to introduce the authors, and by quotations 
from their hymns, and occasional quotations from their other 
poems, as side-lights illustrating their characters, to allow 
their memorials, and the praises they so richly deserve, to 
be expressed through their own lives and their works. 

By the chronological arrangement of the one hundred 
seventy-five authors included in the book, the intelligent 
reader will be able to trace the increase of poetic fervor, and 
the "evolution of song" through the centuries, and also the 
changes in the doctrines and dogmas of the Church, as ex- 
pressed through the hymns, from Roman Catholic Xavier 
down to the truly catholic hymns of Whittier. 

By giving the authors so exclusively the right of way, 
the editor has been able to include in the index of first lines 
references to six hundred twenty-five hymns, by authors 
whose sketches are referred to in the index of authors. The 
hymns have been very carefully selected and are adapted 
for use in churches of all denominations. There are the 
favorite old hymns — which "mother used to sing" — later, 
and new hymns; hymns for the children, ranging in style 
from "There is a happy land" to the classic hymns of Mrs. 
Luke and Mrs. Alexander; a choice selection of Gospel 
Hymns, — in fact, among them all, even the critical reader 
cannot fail to find some of his own favorite hymns. 

Pastors, and leaders of Church meetings will find the 
book a convenient work for reference; easily accessible on 
account of its size, and yet comprehensive enough to include 
most of the hymns in common use at the present time. 

The field of History has been so thoroughly explored 
and occupied that any attempt to obtain material for a new 
history must lead through well-beaten paths, and usually 
result in a new version of an old story, which may have been 



FOREWORD. v 

better told by others. This is true of the "Story of the 
Hymns," and the compiler of this book gratefully acknowl- 
edges the information obtained from the following excellent 
works, to which the reader is referred for a more comprehensive 
and critical treatment of the subject: 

■ Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology; The Hymn Lover, 
by Horder; Campbell's Hymns and Hymn Makers; Christo- 
pher's Hymn Writers and Their Hymns; Benson's Studies 
of Familiar Hymns; Saunder's Evenings with the Sacred 
Poets; Stead's Hymns that have Helped; Tillett's Our Hymns 
and their Authors; Butterworth's Story of the Hymns; 
Butterworth's Story of the Tunes; Miss H. C. Knight's Lady 
Huntingdon and her Friends; The Psalms in Human Life, 
by Rowland E. Prothers, Olden Time Music, by Henry M. 
Brooks; Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, by Alfred 
Porter Putnam; also from works by Elihu Burritt, Mrs. E. 
N. Raynor and Mrs. E. L. Petitclerc, Mr. J. E. A. Smith, 
Rev. C. R. Palmer, D.D., and Rev. W. B. Sprague, D.D. 

The writer also very gratefully acknowledges the kind 
and cordial encouragement and assistance received from the 
following named clergymen : 

Rev. Addison Ballard, D.D., Rev. W. V. W. Davis, 
D.D., Rev. Walter Austin Wagner, Rev. J. Bruce Gilman, 
Rev. James E. Gregg, Rev. Earl C. Davis, Rev. C. L. Leonard, 
D.D., Rev. F. W. Lockwood, Rev. S. P. Cook, all of Pitts- 
field; Rev. George Wakeman Andrews, Ph. D., of Dalton, 
Mass., and Rev. R. DeWitt Mallary, D. D.of Housatonic, Mass. ; 
also the very courteous and helpful testimonial of Mr. H. H. 
Ballard, librarian, of Pittsfield; the loan of cuts of portraits 
of authors by Mr. H. A. Knapp, of the Canaan Press, and the 
many words of appreciation and encouragement received from 
personal friends, which have made the work of the writer 
possible. 

W. Rowena Edgerton. 
Pittsfield, Mass., Oct. 21, 1907. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction, xi 

I. St. Clement — St. Ambrose — Prudentius — St. Anatolius — For- 
tunatus — St. Andrew of Crete — Venerable Bede — St. John of 
Damascus — St. Theodulph — St. Joseph, the Hymnographer . . 1 

II. Robert II, of France — Bernard of Clairvaux — Bernard of 
Cluny — Thomas Aquinas — Thomas of Celano — Luther — Xav- 

ier — Dickson 9 

III. Gerhardt — Ken — Madame Guy on — Tate — Addison — 
Schmolck — Watts — Pope — Tersteegen 19 

IV. Doddridge — The Wesleys — John Wesley — Lady Huntingdon 

— Charles Wesley — Miss Anne Steele — Beddome 29 

V. William Williams — Cennick — Grigg — Bake well — Olivers — New- 
ton — Perronet — Stennett 39 

VI. Cowper — Haweis — Robinson — Medley — Fawcett — Toplady — 

Miss Barbauld — Ryland — Swain — Miss Williams — Kelly .... 47 

VII. Montgomery — Miss Auber — Cawood — Mant — Moore — Heber 

— Barton — Grant 59 

VIII. H. K. White— Miss Elliott— Conder— Edmeston— Milman— 
Keble — Bowring — Mrs. Hemans 69 

IX. 

Lyte — Bridges — Newman — Gurney — Deck — Miss Adams — 
Wordsworth 79 

X. Rawson — Dayman — Trench — Young — Brewer — Bonar — Mrs. 
Browning — Tennyson 90 

XI. Mrs. Crewdson — Alford — Monsell — Mrs. Saxby — Irons — Mc- 
Cheyne — Miss Borthwick — Mrs. Luke 101 



XII. Faber — Stanley — Bode — Downton — Neale Ill 

XIII. Gill — Miss Waring — Baker — Pluniptre — Mrs. Alexander — 

J. D. Burns— Turing— Twells 122 

XIV. How — Palgrave — Miss Procter — Bickersteth — Whiting 134 

XV. Tuttiett — Ellerton — Mrs. Charles — Miss Clephane — Baring — 
Gould — Pierpoint 144 

XVI. Miss Havergal — Dix — Stone — Matheson 155 

XVII. American Hymns. — Mather Byles — Strong — Dwight — Mrs. 
Brown 164 

XVIII. William Allen— Tappan— Miss Hyde— Bacon 172 

XIX. Ray Palmer — Wolcott— Ballard —Gladden— Davies— Oc- 

com — Hastings — Alexander 180 

XX. Duffield — Mrs. Prentiss — Key — Muhlenburg — Doane — Cross- 
well 191 

XXI. Mrs. Stowe — Everest — Coxe — Miss Scudder — Phillips 
Brooks 201 

XXII. John Leland — H olden — Judson — Mrs. Sigourney 206 

XXIII. S. F. Smith— Miss Baxter— Gilm ore 217 

XXIV. P. P. Bliss 222 

XXV. William Hunter— Mrs. (Fanny Crosby) Van Alstyne 231 

XXVI. W. C. Bryant — Ware — Pierpont — Furness — Emerson 238 

XXVII. F. H. Hedge— Bulfinch—O. W. Holmes— J. F. Clarke— 

E. H. Sears 247 

XXVIII. W. H. Burleigh — Jones Very — Samuel Longfellow — 
Samuel Johnson — T. W. Higginson 256 

XXIX. J. W. Chadwick— Gannett— Whittier— Phoebe Cary 266 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Charles Wesley Frontispiece 

Samuel Francis Smith Frontispiece 

Martin Luther. „ e s s s s .„ , a 14 

Isaac Watts 24 

James Montgomery 59 

Charlotte Elliott 70 

Henry Francis Lyte 79 

horatius bonar 94 

Edward Hayes Plumptre 127 - 

Adelaide Anne Procter 133 

Frances Ridley Havergal 155 

Timothy Dwight 169 

William Allen 172 

Ray Palmer ISO 

George Duffield, Jr 191 

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stoy/e 201 

Phillips Brooks 206 

John Leland 209 

Philip Paul Bliss 222 

Oliver Wendell Holmes 250 



INTRODUCTION, 



By Rev. Addison Ballard, D. D. 



Tracing back to its source the great river of sacred song flowing 
through the world to-day, we find ourselves at length on the shore of 
that historic Sea whence, "with the Lawgiver of Israel for the leader 
and a rescued nation for the chorus," rose that jubilant paean of praise, 
"I will sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse 
and his rider hath He cast into the sea. 

Miriam, Deborah and Hannah, David and Solomon, the Hebrew 
prophets; the Greek, the early and medieval Latin; the German, Swedish, 
Spanish, English and American writers of Christian song, have helped to 
widen and deepen this on-flowing tide of melody until, like the rising waters 
of Ezekiel's vision, it has grown to be a river so broad and deep that it 
"cannot be passed over." 

In its depths is living water enough to satisfy the spiritual quest of 
all thirsting souls; yet, like the Nile, it must be led off in lesser channels 
to the waiting fields. It is by the divided "streams" of this river of 
sacred song that the "City of God is to be made glad." 

The unseen helps us to see. The electric current banishes the night 
for all those to whom it comes and who give it a welcome. Starting 
from, it may be, a far distant dynamo, it floods our streets, our places 
of business, our halls of assembly, and our homes. Taken in its full 
strength, however, it overpowers, rather than gladdens, our vision. It 
must be divided and only so much of it be given as each larger or smaller 
space to be illuminated may require. Hence come the need and the wise 
and safe providing of our "step-down" transformers. What in its ac- 
cumulated might would harm rather than help, when thus reduced and 
parceled out does but irradiate and cheer. 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

There are now nearly "half a million nominally Christian hymns, 
in the two hundred languages or dialects in which Christianity is preached." 
Most of us — all of us, indeed, save here and there some specialist in this 
kind of literature — would be smothered by it rather than inspired, were 
this immense, unmanageable mass of material precipitated upon us at 
once. In order that we may be profited by it, we must have step-down 
transformers. And we have them. We need and we have many of them. 
Even Julian's admirable "Dictionary of Hymnology," though it retains 
but ten out of every hundred of the grand total, still bulks too large for 
general use, containing as it does "sixteen hundred closely printed double- 
column pages, giving an account of five thousand authors and translators 
of thirty thousand hymns." Comparatively few even of these have stood 
the tests of time and universal adoption. We must have "transformers" 
which will not only reduce our hymnals to manageable size but which 
embody such selections as will meet the varying tastes and needs of those 
to whom they make their appeal — whether it be for churches and Sunday 
Schools of different denominations; whether for social or family use, or 
for simply personal reading and private devotion. W. T. Stead in his 
"Hymns that have Helped" gives two hundred and sixty as the number 
of collections in the Church of England alone, and he adds, "Of Methodist, 
Roman Catholic, Nonconformist and Presbyterian hymnals, there is no 
end." That these publications supply a widely and a deeply felt want 
is evidenced by the fact that "the normal consumption of them by the 
British public alone is two millions a year". Vast as this number is, it 
is no doubt greatly exceeded by the combined use of other English-speak- 
ing communities. 

This serves as, in part, an answer to the question, "Why, then, 
another?" Hundreds of times, no doubt, the same question has been 
asked on the appearance of each new collection, but in each instance the 
forth-putting has been amply justified by the successful result. This 
gives all true hymn-lovers good ground for the conviction that no over- 
doing mistake has been made by the compiler, author and publisher of 
the present volume. 

The "deadening influence of familiarity" is nowhere, perhaps, to 
be more carefully guarded against than in the singing or reading of our 
most popular hymns. A new and delightful interest in these hymns is 
awakened when we are made acquainted both with something of the life- 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

history of tha authors and with the circumstances under which the hymns 
W3;'3 C3n?333i. This fresh inspiration Mrs. Edgerton supplies us with 
m her book. Ray Palmer's "My faith looks up to Thee;" John Fawcett's 
"Blest be the tie that binds;' ; Charlotte Elliott's "Just as I am 
without one plea;" Cowper's "God moves in a mysterious way/' and 
Bishop Heber's "From Greenland's icy mountains/' come to us with the 
freshness, charm and power of new hymns, as we read what Mrs. Edger- 
ton tells us of their origin and of their authors. 

That true sympathetic spirit which is indispensable for the right 
accomplishment of so delicate a task has guided Mrs. Edgerton in this 
book v\ r hich she now offers to all lovers of these, almost without exception, 
time-tested and universally approved Christian hymns. 



jTmmrit? %mna mth tttyw Auttjnrs 
CHAPTER I. 

Early Greek and Latin Hymns. 



Sing Hallelujah forth in duteous praise, 
citizens of heaven, and sweetly raise 
An endless Hallelujah. 

Anon. Latin (5th Cent.) 




ANY of the most beautiful and inspiring hymns found in 
the hymnals of the Church at the present time are trans- 
lations of the Greek and Latin hymns of the early Church. 
It should be remembered that much of the excellence of 
these hymns is due to the work of the translators, of 
whom there have been many. The renderings of some of the historic 
hymns have been very numerous, those of the "Dies Irae," by Thomas 
of Celano, numbering about ninety in German and 160 in English. 

In translations, Dr. J. Mason Neale's success was pre-eminent, one 
might almost say unique. He had all the qualifications of a good trans- 
lator, being not only an excellent classical scholar in the ordinary sense 
of the term, but positively steeped in mediaeval Latin. He was the first 
translator of Greek hymns into the English tongue. The total of his 
translations is very large, and he was also the author of many excellent 
original hymns. 

While Dr. Neale's place as a leader is secure, there have been many 
other translators to whom we are indebted for their excellent renderings 
of hymns written by godly men of the early Church who seemed to be 
as truly inspired to write their immortal songs as the apostles were to 
preach the Gospel "with the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit." 

St. Clement of Alexandria (170-220). 

The great center of beginnings of Christian work in Africa was in 
Alexandria, in Egypt, where the first school of Christian theology recorded 



FAVORITE HYMNS 



in history was planted, a school associated with the noble names of Pan- 
taenus, Clement, the Athenian scholar, and Origen, who wrote the first 
important work in favor of Missions. 

St. Clement of Alexandria was born possibly at Athens about A. D. 
170. Of his parentage there is no record. Studious, and anxious to 
satisfy his mind on the highest subjects, he is said to have been a seeker 
after truth amongst Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian and Jewish teachers. He 
himself enumerates six teachers of eminence under whom he studied the 
"true tradition of the blessed doctrine of the holy apostles." At Alex- 
andria he came under the teaching of Pantaenus, and embraced Chris- 
tianity, Pantaenus being at the time the master of the Catechetical school 
in that city. On the retirement of Pantaenus from the school, for mis- 
sionary work, Clement became its head, and retained the position to 203- 
His pupils were numerous, and some of them of note, including Origen, 
and Alexander, afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem. Driven from Alexandria 
by the persecution under Severus (202-203) he wandered forth, it is not 
known whither. Nothing is known concerning his subsequent life, or 
his death. 

Clement was a reformer, and wrote several books instructing new 
converts in the life becoming the gospel of Christ, and exposing the dread- 
ful moral corruption of paganism. At the end of one of his books is 
appended the "Hymn to Christ the Saviour." This hymn has been fre- 
quently translated, but it had to wait sixteen centuries for the honor 
of a place in the hymn books of the Church. It is the only ancient hymn 
for children existing. Dr. Martin Dexter's translation is the most popular 
of the many renderings of this hymn. It was first published in the "Con- 
gregationalist " in 1849. Following are the first two stanzas: 

Shepherd of tender youth, 
Guiding in love and truth 

Through devious ways; 
Christ, our triumphant King, 
We come Thy name to sing; 
Hither our children bring, 

To shout Thy praise. 

Thou art our holy Lord, 
The all-subduing Word, 

Healer of strife; 
Thou didst thyself abase 

That from sin's deep disgrace 
Thou mightest save our race, 

And give us life. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 



St. Ambrose (340-397). 

St. Ambrose was born in Gaul about the year 340, and was chosen 
Bishop of Milan in the year 374. He wrote popular hymns that were 
first used among his own people at Milan, and then throughout Italy. 
In reply to one who charged him with unduly influencing the minds of 
the people by the singing of hymns, he said: "A grand thing is that 
singing, and nothing can stand before it. For what can be more telling 
than that confession of the Trinity which a whole population utters, 
day by day? For all are eager to proclaim their faith, and in measured 
strains have learned to confess Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." St. 
Augustine thus speaks of the effect produced upon him by the singing 
of the hymns of Ambrose in the Church of Milan: "How did I weep, O 
Lord! through thy hymns and canticles, touched to the quick by the 
voices of thy sweet-attuned church! The voices sank into mine ears, 
and the truths distilled into my heart; tears ran down and I rejoiced 
in them." 

The first and fifth verses of St. Ambrose's beautiful morning hymn 

follow : 

O Jesus, Lord of heavenly grace, 

Thou brightness of Thy Father's face; 

Thou fountain of eternal light, 

Whose beams disperse the shades of night ! 

Oh, hallowed be the approaching day! 
Let meekness be our morning ray, 
And faithful love our noonday light, 
And hope our sunset, calm and bright. 

Aurelius C. Prudentius (348-413). 
Aurelius Clemens Prudentius is the name of the most prominent 
and most prolific author of sacred Latin poetry in its earliest days. Of 
the writer himself we know nothing, or next to nothing, beyond what he 
has himself told us, in a short introduction in verse to his works. From 
that source we learn that he was a Spaniard, of good family, evidently, 
and that he was born A. D. 348 somewhere in the north of Spain. After 
receiving a good education, befitting his social status, he applied himself 
for some years to practicing as a pleader in the local courts of law, until 
he received a promotion to judgeship in two cities successively, and 
afterwards to a post of still higher authority. It was after this length- 
ened experience, at a comparatively early age, of positions of trust and 
power, that Prudentius, conscience smitten on account of the follies and 
worldliness that had marked his youth and earlier manhood, determined 



FAVORITE HYMNS 



to throw up all his secular employments and devote the remainder of 
his life to advancing the interests of Christ's Church by the power of his 
pen rather than that of his purse and personal position. Accordingly 
we find that he retired in his 57th year into poverty and private life, and 
began that remarkable succession of sacred poems upon which his fame 
now entirely rests. Following are the first two stanzas of one of his best 
known hymns : 

Bethlehem, not the least of cities,, 

None can e'er with thee compare; 
Thou alone the Lord from Heaven 

Didst for us incarnate bear. 

Fairer than the sun at morning 

Shone the star that told his birth, 

To the lands their God announcing, 
Veiled beneath a form of earth. 



St. Anatoiius (45S-). 

The principal seamen's hymn of the early church was that of St. 
Anatoiius, a Greek poet who lived about 458, but no details of his life 
are known. This hymn has lately been introduced into modern psalmody, 
being one of the happiest translations of Dr. John Mason Neale. Dr. 
Neale has not only clearly given the sense of the original, but preserved 
the part of the Nicene creed — the "God of God," " Light of Light," and 
"Truth of Truth" — which it repeats. Its inspiration may have been 
drawn from the storms that beset the church, or from the tempests that 
darkened the Ionian Sea. The first verse follows: 

Fierce was the wild billow, 

Dark was the night, 
Oars labored heavily, 

Foam glimmered white; 
Trembled the mariners, 

Peril was nigh; 
Then said the God of Gods, 

"Peace! it is I!" 

St. Anatoiius is also the author of the familiar Evening hymn: 

The day is past and over; 

All thanks, O Lord to Thee! 
I pray Thee now that sinless 

The hours of dark may be. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 



V. H. C. Fortunatus (530-609). 

V. H. C. Fortunatus was born at Ceneda, near Treviso, in Italy, 
about 530. At an early age he was converted to Christianity. Whilst, 
a student at Ravenna he became almost blind and recovered his sight, 
as he believed, miraculously, by anointing his eyes with some oil taken 
from a lamp that burned before the altar of St. Martin of Tours, in a 
church in that town. His recovery induced him to make a pilgrimage 
to the shrine of St. Martin of Tours in 565, and that pilgrimage resulted 
in his spending the rest of his days in Gaul. His writings, chiefly poetical, 
are very numerous and various in kind. Following are the first two 
stanzas of his beautiful "Resurrection" hymn of seven verses: 

Welcome happy morning, age to age shall say, 
Hell today is vanquished, heav'n is won today. 
Lo! the Dead is living, God forever more; 
Him their true Creator, all His works adore. 

Earth her joy confesses, clothing her with spring, 
All good gifts returned with her returning King; 
Bloom in every meadow, leaves on every bough, 
Speak His sorrow ended, hail His triumph now. 

St. Andrew of Crete (660-732). 

St. Andrew of Crete was born at Damascus (A. D. 660.) He em- 
braced the monastic life at Jerusalem. He was deputed by Theodore, 
Patriarch of Jerusalem, to attend the sixth General Council at Constan- 
tinople to support the orthodox faith against the Monothelites. He was 
then ordained deacon, and became Warden of the Orphanage. He sub- 
sequently became Archbishop of Crete. He died in the island of Hierissus* 
near Mitylene, about 732. Seventeen of his homilies are extant, the best, 
naturally, being on Titus, the Bishop of Crete. Following are the first 
and last verses of St. Andrew's "Holy War" hymn: 

Christian, dost thou see them 

On the holy ground, 
How the hosts of darkness 

Compass thee around? 
Christian, up and smite them, 

Counting gain but loss; 
Smite them, Christ is with thee, 

Soldier of the cross. 

Well I know thy trouble, 

my servant true; 
Thou art very weary, 

1 was weary too; 



FAVORITE HYMNS 



But that toil shall make thee 

Some day all Mine own, 
And the end of sorrow 

Shall be near my throne. 

The Venerable Bede (673-735). 

The Venerable Bede represented the patient and scholarly class of 
his whole age. He was born in Durham, England, about A. D. 673, spent 
his laborious life of a century at the monastery of Wearmouth and Yar- 
row, and reared a literary monument of forty different works, twenty- 
five of which were on Biblical subjects. History and kindred topics were 
treated in the remaining fifteen. He died in great joy, singing psalms 
with his pupils, immediately after concluding his Anglo-Saxon translation 
of John's gospel. Following is the first stanza of a beautiful hymn of 
seven verses: 

A hymn of glory let us sing: 
New hymns throughout the world shall ring; 
Christ by a new and wondrous road, 
Ascends unto the throne of God." 

St. John of Damascus (780-). 

The Laura of Sabas, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, was famous 
in more ways than one. It became the centre of a school of hymn-writers , 
of whom the two chief were Cosmas and St. John of Damascus. The 
impress of the latter on the Greek service books is distinct and deep. 
His canons on the great festivals of the church are his greatest achieve- 
ments. The great subject about which his hymns are grouped is the 
Incarnation, developed in the whole earthly career of the Saviour. His 
hymns are found scattered throughout the Service books of the Greek 
church. St. John of Damascus is said by Dr Neale to have been the 
greatest of the Greek poets. He was of a good family in Damascus, and 
was educated by the elder Cosmas. He was ordained priest of the church 
in Jerusalem late in life, and lived to an eAtreme old age. The first two 
stanzas of one of his best hymns follow: 

Those eternal bowers 

Man hath never trod, 
Those unfading flowers 

Round the throne of God: 
Who may hope to gain them 

After weary fight? 
Who at length attain them, 

Clad in robes of white? 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 



He who wakes from slumber 

At the Spirit's voice, 
Daring here to number 

Things unseen his choice: 
He who casts his burden 

Down at Jesus' Cross; 
Christ's reproach his guerdon, 

All beside but loss. 

St. John is also author of the celebrated "Hymn of Victory," begin- 
ning: 

The day of resurrection, 

Earth tell it out abroad, 
The Passover of gladness, 

The Passover of God. 
From death to life eternal 

From this world to the sky, 
Our Christ hath brought us over, 

With hymns of victory. 

St. Theodulph of Orleans (-821). 

The hymn "All glory, laud, and honor," was written by St. Theo- 
dulph whilst he was imprisoned in the cloister at Angers. There is a 
story that the hymn being sung by its author at his prison window in 
the hearing of the Emperor, Louis I, gained the monk a pardon. 

St. Theodulph lived in the eighth and ninth centuries, and the ritual 
use of this hymn has always been as a processional on Palm Sunday. 
The first and fourth verses follow: 

All glory, laud, and honor 

To Thee, Redeemer, King, 
To whom the lips of children 

Made sweet hosannas ring. 

The people of the Hebrews 

With palms before Thee went : 
Our praise and prayers and anthems 

Before Thee we present. 

St. Joseph the Hymnographer (883-). 

St. Joseph was a native of Sicily, and of the Sicilian school of poets. 
He left Sicily in 830 for a monastic life at Thessalonica. Thence he 
went to Constantinople, but left it during the iconoclastic persecution 
for Rome. He was for many years a slave in Crete, having been captured 
by pirates. After regaining his liberty he established a monastery in 



8 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Constantinople which was filled with inmates through his eloquence. He 
is the most voluminous of the Greek hymn writers. 

The first and last verses of one of his grandest hymns follow : 



Let our choir new anthems raise, 

Wake the song of gladness; 
God himself to joy and praise 

Turns the martyr's sadness. 
Bright the day that won their crown, 

Open'd heav'n's bright portal, 
As they laid the mortal down 

To put on th'immortal. 

Up and follow, Christian men! 

Press through toil and sorrow; 
Spurn the night of fear, and then, 

Oh, the glorious morrow! 
Who will venture on the strife? 

Blest who first begin it! 
Who will grasp the land of life? 

Warriors, up and win it! 



CHAPTER II. 



Tenth To The Seventeenth Century. 



Be Thou our present joy, Lord! 
Who wilt be ever our reward; 
And as the countless ages flee, 
May all our glory be in Thee. 



Venerable Bede. 




has been truly remarked that some of the best hymns 
were composed in "the dark ages." They were "sombre 
and monotonous, but simple and sublime, and never to 
fade until that last day which they so often celebrate." 
Speaking of the earliest hymns of the Latin Church, 
Herder, a celebrated German writer, says, "Who can deny their power 
and influence over the soul? They go with the solitary into his cell, and 
attend the afflicted in distress, in want, and to the grave. While singing 
these, one forgets his toil, and his fainting, sorrowful spirit soars in heav- 
enly joys to another world. Back to earth he comes, to labor, to toil, 
to suffer in silence, and to conquer. How rich the boon, how great the 
power of these hymns!" 

Robert II of France (997-1031). 

Robert II succeeded his father upon the throne of France, about 
the year 997. He has been called the gentlest monarch that ever sat 
upon a throne, and his amiability of character poorly prepared him to 
cope with his dangerous and wily adversaries. His last years were em- 
bittered by the opposition of his own sons, and the political agitations 
of his times. 

Robert possessed a reflective mind, and was fond of learning and 
musical art. He was both a poet and a musician. He was deeply re- 
ligious, and from unselfish motives, was much devoted to the Church. 
He was a chorister, and there was no kingly service that he seemed to 



10 FAVORITE HYMNS 

love so well. We are told that it was his custom to go to the church 
of St. Denis, and in his royal robes, with his crown upon his head, to direct 
the choir at matins and vespers, and join in the singing. Few kings have 
left a better legacy to the Christian Church than his hymn, which, after 
a thousand years, is still a tone and an influence in the world. 
The first two verses of his hymn follow: 

Holy Spirit, Lord of light, 
From the clear celestial height 

Thy pure beaming radiance give. 
Come, Thou Father of the poor, 
Come, with treasures which endure, 

Come, Thou light of all that live. 

Thou of all consolers best, 

Thou, the soul's delightsome guest, 

Dost refreshing peace bestow; 
Thou, in toil, art comfort sweet, 
Pleasant coolness in the heat, 

Solace in the midst of woe. 

Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153). 

Bernard of Clairvaux, the animating spirit of the Second Crusade, 
and the great campaign evangelist, was a child of five years when Peter 
the Hermit entered on the First Crusade. Bernard had been dedicated 
to Christian service by his wonderful mother, Aleth, who took her child, 
like Hannah of old, into the temple in babyhood and consecrated him 
to a holy life. 

Bernard was eminently a missionary, and through his influence 
schools for Christian teaching were founded in England, Scotland, Ire- 
land, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Italy. The true mission- 
ary spirit rings in his warning letter to Pope Eugenius III, who had been 
in Palestine one of Bernard's pupils: "Who can assure me that I shall, 
before I die, see God's church as it was in the old days, when the apostles 
cast their nets not for gold or silver, but for souls? How do I wish that 
thou mightst have the spirit of him who said, "Thy money perish with 
thee." Oh, that Zion's foes might tremble and be overwhelmed by this 
word of thunder! This, your mother, the Church, demands and expects 
of thee. Thy mother's sons, great and small, are longing, sighing, for 
this, that every plant that our Heavenly Father hath not planted, may 
be by thee rooted up." 

When the existence of the Christian kingdom in the East was threat- 
ened by the fall of Edessa, that beloved Christian stronghold, into the 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 11 

hands of the Turks, it fired the spirit of the holy Bernard, who travelled 
through Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, preaching a crusade 
with an eloquence that enlisted the co-operation of a French king and a 
German emperor. In 1147, largely as the result of Bernard's exciting 
appeals, three hundred thousand were on the march to Jerusalem, while 
it was said that as many more began a better pilgrimage to a holier city. 

In later years, Bernard's missionary interests were engaged for the 
conversion of the Jews, who were then, as in all subsequent time, subjects 
of persecution. He pleaded always, " There is a promise of the general 
conversion of the Jews." 

Bernard's beautiful hymns are the flowers and fruitage of his zealous 
and consecrated life. 

Following are the first verses of three of his hymns: 

Jesus, the very thought of Thee 

With sweetness fills my breast; 
But sweeter far thy face to see, 

And in thy presence rest. 

O sacred Head, now wounded, 

With grief and shame weighed dovvTi, 
Now scornfully surrounded 

With thorns, Thine only crown; 
O sacred Head, what glory, 

What bliss, till now, was Thine! 
Yet, tho' despised and gory, 

I joy to call Thee mine. 

O Jesus, King most wonderful, 

Thou conqueror renowned, 
Thou sweetness most ineffable, 

In whom all joys are found. 

Bernard of Cluny (12th Century). 

Barnard of Cluny was an Englishman by extraction, both of his 
parents being natives of England. He was born, however, in France, 
very early in the 12th century, at Morlaix. Little or nothing is known 
of his life, beyond the fact that he entered the Abbey of Cluny, of which 
at that time, Peter the Venerable was the head. There, so far as we 
know, he spent his whole after life, and there he probably died, though 
the exact date of his death, as well as of his birth, is unrecorded. The 
Abbey of Cluny was at that time at the zenith of its wealth and fame. 
Its church was unequalled by any in France; the services therein renowned 
for the elaborate order of their ritual, and its community, the most nu- 



12 FAVORITE HYMNS 

merous of any like institution, gave it a position and an influence such 
as no other monastery, perhaps, ever had. Everything about it was 
splended, almost luxurious. It was amid these surroundings that Bernard 
of Cluny spent his leisure time in composing that wondrous satire against 
the follies and vices of his age which has supplied some of the most widely 
known and admired hymns of the church of today. 

Following are the first four lines of three of his hymns: 

Brief life is here our portion; 

Brief sorrow, short-lived care; 
The life that knows no ending, 

The tearless life, is there. 

For thee, O dear, dear country, 

Mine eyes their vigils keep; 
For very love, beholding 

Thy happy name, they weep. 

Jerusalem the golden, 

With milk and honey blest, 
Beneath thy contemplation 

Sink heart and voice opprest. 

Each of these hymns ends with the stanza: 

O sweet and blessed country, 

The home of God's elect! 
O sweet and blessed country, 

That eager hearts expect ! 
Jesus, in mercy bring us 

To that dear land of rest ; 
Who art, with God the Father, 

And Spirit, ever blest. 

Thomas Aquinas (i 227-1 274). 

Thomas of Aquino, confessor and doctor, commonly called "the 
Angelical Doctor," is said to be the greatest divine of the Roman Catholic 
Church. At the age of five he was sent to the Benedictine monastery 
at Monte Cassino to receive his first training. After remaining seven 
years in this institution, and continuing his studies in Cologne and in the 
University of Paris, where he completed a three years' curriculum, he 
was established in a new Dominican school, where he achieved a great 
reputation as a teacher, though he by no means confined himself to such 
work. By his preaching and his writings he exerted such an influence 
over the men and ideas of his time that Louis IX insisted upon his becom- 
ing a member of his Council of State, and referred every question that 
came up for deliberation to him the night before, that he might reflect 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 13 

on it in solitude. At this time he was only thirty-two years of age. In 
1261 St. Thomas was appointed to a chair of theology in the Dominican 
College in Rome, where he obtained a like reputation to that which he 
had already secured at Paris and Cologne. Pope Urban, being anxious 
to reward his services, offered him, first the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 
and then a Cardinal's hat, but he refused both. He also declined an 
appointment to the archbishopric of Naples, and the offer of the revenues 
of the convent of St. Peter and Aram. King Charles I as a mark of royal 
honor, bestowed on him a pension. 

St. Thomas was a successful lecturer and a most voluminous writer. 
Though not a prolific writer of hymns, he has contributed to the long 
list of Latin hymns some which have been in the services of the Church 
of Rome from his day to this. They are upon the subject of the Lord's 
supper. St. Thomas is one of several Roman Catholic authors whose 
hymns have long been in use in the Protestant Church. Following is a 
brief hymn by St. Thomas: 

O saving victim, opening wide 

The gate of Heaven to men below, 
Our foes press on from every side; 

Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow. 

All thanks and praise to Thee ascend 

Forevermore, blest One in Three; 
O, grant us life that shall not end, 

In our true native land with Thee. 

Thomas of Celano (13th Century). 

It is somewhat remarkable that neither the date of the birth nor 
of the death of this writer, whose name is so intimately associated with 
the "Dies Irae," is on record. Thomas was the friend and biographer 
of Francis of Assisi. The hold which this hymn has had upon the minds 
of men of various nations and creeds has been very great. Goethe uses it 
in his "Faust" with great effect. It also furnishes a grand climax in 
Canto 6, in Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel." It has been 
translated into many languages, in some of which the renderings are very 
numerous. Daniel, writing from a German standpoint, says, "Even 
those to whom the hymns of the Latin church are almost entirely un- 
known, certainly know this one; and if anyone can be found so alien to 
human nature that they have no appreciation of sacred poetry, yet, as 
a matter of certainty, even they would give their minds to this hymn, 
of which every word is weighty, yea, even a thunder-clap." 



14 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Upon the Dies Irae Mozart founded his celebrated "Requiem" — 
in the composition of which his excitement became so great as to hasten 
his death — and it is said that Rev. Samuel Johnson could never, on ac- 
count of his tears, repeat this hymn in the original. 

We give the greatly condensed version of the Dies Irae, as trans- 
lated by Sir Walter Scott. This is the only version which is found in 
our commonly-used hymn-books: 

That day of wrath! that dreadful day, 
When heaven and earth shall pass away! 
What power shall be the sinner's stay? 
How shall he meet that dreadful day? 

When, shrivelling like a parched scroll, 
The naming heavens together roll; 
When, louder yet, and yet more dread, 
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead; 

O, on that day, that dreadful day, 
When man to judgment wakes from clay, 
Be thou, O God, the sinner's stay, 
Though heaven and earth shall pass away. 

Rev. Martin Luther, D. D. (1483-1546). 

Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, Saxony, in 1483. His poetical 
talents and love of music were very great. He learned the science with 
the first rudiments of his native language; and when, as a wandering 
minstrel, he earned his daily bread by exercising his musical powers 
in singing before the doors of the rich in the streets of Magdeburg and 
Eisenach, he was as truly preparing for the future reformer as when a 
retired monk in the cloister of Erfurt, he was storing his mind with the 
truths of revelation, with which to refute the errors of popery. One of 
his earliest efforts at reform was the publication of a psalm-book, in 1524, 
composed and set to music chiefly by himself. S. T. Coleridge says that 
Martin Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns, as by his 
translation of the Bible. The hymns of Luther were indeed the battle- 
cry and trumpet-call of the Reformation. "The children learned them 
in the cottage, and martyrs sung them on the scaffold." 

The hymn beginning: 

"A mighty fortress is our God," 
is the grandest of Luther's hymns, and is in harmony with sublime his- 
torical periods, from its very nature, boldness and simplicity. It was 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 15 

written, according to Welles, in the memorable year when the evangelical 
princes delivered their protest at the Diet of Spires, from which the word 
and the meaning of the word Protestant is derived. Luther used often 
to sing it in 1530, while the Diet of Augsburg was sitting. It soon became 
the favorite psalm with the people. It was one of the watchwords of the 
Reformation, cheering armies to conflict, and sustaining believers in the 
hours of fiery trial. 

After Luther's death, when his affectionate coadjutor Melancthon 
was at Weimar with his banished friends Jonas and Creuziger, he heard 
a little maid singing this psalm in the street, and said, "Sing on, my 
little girl, you little know whom you comfort." The first line of this 
hymn is inscribed on Luther's tomb at Wittenburg. 

Following are the first and third verses of the hymn as translated 
by F. H. Hedge: 

A mighty fortress is our God, 

A bulwark never failing, 
Our helper he, amid the flood 

Of mortal ills prevailing. 
For still our ancient foe 
Doth seek to work us woe; 
His craft and power are great, 
And, armed with cruel hate, 

On earth is not his equal. 

And though this world with devils filled, 

Should threaten to undo us; 
We wall not fear, for God hath willed 

His truth to triumph through us. 
The Prince of Darkness grim — 
We tremble not for him; 
His rage we can endure, 
For, lo, his doom is sure, 

One little word shall fell him. 

The tune, "Ein' Feste Burg," to which this hymn is sung, was also 
composed by Luther. 

St. Francis Xavier (i 506-1 552). 

Francis Xavier was born of a noble family in Spain, in 1506. At 
the age of 16 he entered the University of Paris, where he was brought 
under the influence of Loyola, the celebrated founder of the Jesuit Order. 
He renounced all worldly ambitions and aims and became a missionary 
to India, China and other foreign lands, toiling with a self-forgetful ardor 
and a self-consuming zeal. He died in 1552, on the barren island of San- 
chian near Canton, China. 



16 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Of this distinguished missionary it has been well said that, from the 
days of Paul of Tarsus to our own, the annals of mankind exhibit no 
other example of a soul borne upward so triumphantly through distress 
and danger in their most appalling aspects. When, on one occasion, 
reminded of the perils to which he was about to expose himself by a 
mission to the barbarous islands of the Eastern Archipelago, he replied, 
"If these lands had scented woods and mines of gold, Christians would 
find courage to go there; nor would all the perils of the world prevent 
them. They are dastardly and alarmed because there is nothing to be 
gained but the souls of men; and shall love be less hardy and less gen- 
erous than avarice? They will destroy me, you say, by poison. It is 
an honor to which such a sinner as I am may not aspire; but this I dare 
to say, that, whatever form of torture or of death awaits me, I am ready 
to suffer it ten thousand times for the salvation of a single soul." 

Well has John Angell James said, "This is a sublime heroism. Won- 
drous Xavier! whatever were thy errors, it would be the dregs of bigotry 
not to admire thy martyr zeal." 

Following is his famous hymn, which is found in many Protestant 
hymnals : 

Thou, O my Jesus Thou didst me 

Upon the cross embrace: 
For me didst bear the nails, and spear, 

And manifold disgrace; 

And griefs and torments numberless, 

And sweat of agony; 
E'en death itself; and all for one 

Who was thine enemy . 

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, 

Should I not love Thee well? 
Not for the hope of winning heaven, 

Or of escaping hell. 

Not with the hope of gaining aught, 

Nor seeking a reward; 
But as thyself has loved me, 

O ever loving Lord. 

E'en so I love Thee, and will love, 

And in Thy praise will sing; 
Solely because Thou art my God, 

And my eternal King. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 17 

Rev. David Dickson (1583-1663). 

Rev. David Dickson, the reputed author of the quaint and beauti- 
ful hymn, 

"O mother dear, Jerusalem!" 

in the present form of the poem, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, 
born at Glasgow in 1583, and for several years Professor of Divinity at 
Glasgow and in the University of Edinburg. He was deprived of his 
office at the Restoration for refusing the oath of Supremacy, and died 
in 1663. This historic hymn which has made him famous as an author, 
was spoken of by Montgomery as one of the finest in our language. Wil- 
liam C. Prime, in the eloquent introduction to his book on the " Origin 
and Genealogy" of this old hymn, says: "This hymn has grown to be 
very sacred. It was sung by the martyrs of Scotland. It has rung in 
triumphal tones through the arches of mighty cathedrals; it has been 
chanted by the lips of kings, and queens, and nobles; it has ascended 
in the still air above the roofs of the poor; it has given utterance to the 
hopes and expectations of the Christian on every continent, by every 
sea shore, in hall and hovel, until it has become in one or another of its 
forms, the possession of the whole Christian world." 

The origin of this noble canticle can be traced back to the Apocalypse, 
of which it reproduces much of the imagery and phraseology. With the 
lapse of centuries the poem grew, word by word, line by line, as the voice 
of the Christian Church found its sublimest utterances in such glowing 
aspirations. A careful examination of the authorities leads to the con- 
viction that we are indebted to Rev. David Dickson for the present form 
of the poem, and probably for a considerable portion of the verses. 

As a specimen of the quaint and pithy fervor of this precious old 
song of faith, we take the following stanzas from the version presented 
by Mr. Prime in his admirable history of the hymn: 



Ah God! that I Jerusalem 

With speed may go behold! 
For why? the pleasures there abound 

With tongue cannot be told. 
Thy turrets and thy pinnacles, 

With carbuncles do shine, 
With jasper, pearl, and chrysolite, 

Surpassing pure and fine. 



18 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Thy houses are of ivory, 

Thy windows crystal clear, 
Thy streets are laid with beaten gold — 

There angels do appear. 
Thy walls are made of precious stones, 

Thy bulwarks diamond square, 
Thy gates are made of Orient pearl — 

O God, if I were there! 

There David stands, with harp in hand, 

As master of the quier; 
A thousand times that man were blessed 

That might his music hear. 
There Mary sings Magnificat, 

With tunes surpassing sweet; 
And all the virgins bear their part, 

Singing about her feet. 

Te deum doth St. Ambrose sing, 

St. Austin doth the like: 
Old Simeon and Zacharie 

Have not their songs to seek. 
There Magdalene hath left her moan, 

And cheerfully doth sing, 
With all blest saints whose harmony 

Through every street doth ring. 

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! 

Thy joys fain would I see; 
Come quickly, Lord, and end my grief, 

And take me home to Thee: 
O print Thy name in my forehead, 

And take me hence away, 
That I may dwell with Thee in bliss, 

And sing thy praises aye! 



CHAPTER III. 

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. 



Awake! our love; awake! our joy, 

Awake ! our heart and tongue ; 
Sleep not when mercies loudly call; 

Break forth into a song. 

John Mason. 




Rev. Paulus Gerhardt (i 606-1 676). 

HIS German divine was born in Saxony in 1606. Ger- 
hardt was a great sufferer in the cause of reformed faith, 
but his sufferings were in a measure compensated by 
the supports of human love. He became a Christian 
pastor at the close of the Thirty Years' War, first at a 
small village called Mittenwalde, and subsequently at Berlin. In 1666 
he was deposed from his spiritual office on account of his firm adherence 
to the Lutheran doctrines. He received the reverse submissively, and 
said with characteristic loftiness of spirit, "I am willing to seal with 
my blood the evangelical truth, and offer my neck to the sword." His 
last days were serene, and witnessed to the end the consolations of an 
all- victorious faith. He died at the age of 70, while in the act of repeat- 
ing the lines, 

"Death has no power to kill, 
But from many a dreaded ill 
Bears the spirit safe away." 

Gerhardt 's hymn beginning, 

Give to the winds thy fears, 
Hope and be undismayed, 

will be readily recalled by its first lines, and we give the first verse of a 

beautiful hymn which is not so familiar: 

A pilgrim and a stranger, 

I sojourn here below; 
Far distant is my count ly, 

The home to which I go. 
Here I must toil and travel, 

Oft weary and oppressed, 
But there my God shall lead me 

To everlasting rest. 



20 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Thomas Ken (1637- 1 710). 

The grand doxology, beginning, 

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow 

is suited to all denominations, and to all conditions of men. It has been 
translated into all civilized tongues, and adopted by the Church universal. 
Written more than two thousand years ago, it has become the grandest 
tone in the anthem of earth's voices, and has probably been used more 
than any other composition in the world, the Lord's prayer excepted. 

Bishop Ken, the writer of the hymns that first contained this magni- 
ficent stanza, in the form that it is now used, was born at Berkhamstead , 
England, in 1637, and was educated at Oxford. He early in life conse- 
crated himself to God, and became a prelate. The Morning and Even- 
ing Hymns, which end with this doxology, were originally written by 
Ken for the use of the students in Winchester college, and were appended 
to a devotional work which he himself prepared, entitled "The Manual 
of Prayers." 

In 1679, Ken was appointed chaplain to Mary, Princess of Orange, 
and in 1680 chaplain to Charles II. In the latter capacity he fearlessly 
did his duty, as one accountable to God alone, and not to any man. He 
reproved the merry monarch, for his vices in the plainest and most 
direct manner. "I must go and hear Ken tell me of my faults," the 
king used to say good-humoredly. In 1684 Charles raised him to the 
See of Bath and Wells. Ken resisted the re-establishment of popery 
under James, and was one of the famous "seven bishops" who were tried 
for treason and acquitted. He died in 1710, and was buried in the church- 
yard in Frome. He had requested that six of the poorest men of the 
parish might carry him to his grave, and that he might be interred with- 
out pomp or ceremony. This accordingly was the manner of his burial. 
"The moral character of Ken," says Lord Macaulay, "seems to approach, 
as near as any human infirmity permits, to the ideal of Christian per- 
fection." 

Following is the first verse of his beautiful Evening Hymn: 

Glory to thee, my God, this night, 
For all the blessings of the light; 
Keep me, oh keep me, King of kings, 
Beneath Thine own almighty wings. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 21 



The Morning Hymn begins with the stanza: 

Awake, my soul, and with the sun 
Thy daily stage of duty run; 
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise 
To pay thy morning sacrifice. 



Madame Guyon (1648-17 17). 

In the galaxy of authors whose poetical effusions adorned the annals 
of the seventeenth century, there was only one woman who achieved 
lasting fame as a writer of hymns. 

Madame Jeanne de la Guyon — or Guion — was born at Montargis, 
France, in 1648, and was educated, according to the custom of the time, 
in the convents of her native city. She became pious in girlhood, and 
consecrated her life to God. The period in which she lived was par- 
ticularly unfavorable for religious development — the dazzling but cor- 
rupt reign of Louis XIV. The people were taught to rely upon the obser- 
vance of imposing rites and ceremonies for salvation, rather than upon 
an inward acquaintance with God. But Mademoiselle de la Rothe found 
this sensational religion unsatisfying and was anxious to know the truth 
and to practice it. 

When Madame Guyon was about twenty years of age, the way of 
a spiritual acquaintance with God was clearly revealed to her. She 
lived in the enjoyment of religion many years, and, after the death of 
her husband, felt it her duty to become a spiritual instructor. Her 
written works exerting a powerful influence, which was deemed adverse 
to the tenets of Rome, she was arrested by a royal order, and confined 
in the convent of St. Marie. She was released through the influence of 
Madame Maintenon. She became intimately acquainted with the learned 
and illustrious Fenelon, who favored her views in respect to inward holi- 
ness, and a state of continuous fellowship with God. She was again ar- 
rested on a false charge, and was imprisoned in the ancient castle of 
Vincennes, from which she was removed in 1689 to a prison in the Bastile, 
where she occupied a cell next that of the "Man of the Iron Mask." In 
this abode of sorrow Madame Guyon was for four years immured. 

She was finally banished to Diziers, and died at the city of Blois, 
at a very advanced age. 

During the ten years Madame Guyon spent in prisons she composed 
many hymns and poems on sacred subjects, filling five octavo volumes. 



22 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Many of her views were considered erroneous, yet John Wesley says of 
her, "I believe she was not only a good woman, but good in an eminent 
degree, — deeply devoted to God, and often favored with uncommon 
communications of his Spirit." In her last years she seemed to dwell 
as it were, in Immanuel's land. She feared neither bastiles nor death. 
She speaks of her mind as fixed upon God, and enjoying uninterrupted 
communication with Him. Her poems are a revelation of her religious 
life and luminous experiences. 

Of her habitual resignation to the will of God, she says in her best 
known hymn: 

Thou, by long experience tried, 
Near whom no grief can long abide; 
My Lord, how full of sweet content 
My years of pilgrimage are spent ! 

To me remains nor place nor time: 
My country is in every clime; 

1 can be calm and free from care 
On any shore, since God is there. 

If life in sorrow must be spent, 
So be it, I am well content; 
And meekly wait my last remove, 
Desiring only trustful love. 

No bliss I'll seek, but to fulfil 

In life or death, Thy perfect will; 

No succors in my woes I want, 

But what my Lord is pleased to grant. 

Nahum Tate (1652-1715). 

Nahum Tate was poet laureate of England from 1690 to 1715. His 
"Metrical Version of the Psalms" was the standard and authorized ver- 
sion of the times. He was assisted in the composition of his work by 
Rev. Nicholas Brady, D. D., a clergyman of the Church of England. 
Both were natives of the Emerald Isle. A number of excellent hymns 
from Tate and Brady's collection are found in our church hymnals at 
the present time. Nahum Tate was the author of the favorite Christmas 
hymn, beginning with the stanza: 

While shepherds watched their flocks by night, 

All seated on the ground, 
The angel of the Lord came down, 

And glory shone around. 
"Fear not," said he, for mighty dread 

Had seized their troubled mind; 
"Glad tidings of great joy I bring 

To you and all mankind." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 23 



Joseph Addison (1672-1719). 

Joseph Addison, who flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth 
and the early portion of the eighteenth centuries, commands the respect 
of all who value true religion. Though in the early part of his life he 
devoted himself to political affairs, he soon abandoned them, and also 
an earlier design of taking orders in the English Church, and gave his 
days and nights to literature. Especially did he advance literature and 
fine taste by the publication of the "Spectator," the happy results of 
which are still felt in literary circles in England. His hymns were ori- 
ginally printed in the Spectator. 

Addison was made to see clearly God's providential care in his own 
life and experience. The familiar hymn beginning: 

When all thy mercies, O my God, 

My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I'm lost 

In wonder, love and praise, 

was inspired by devotional gratitude for his providential escape from 
shipwreck during a storm off the coast of Genoa. 

Addison is also the author of the beautiful hymn, beginning: 

The Lord my pasture shall prepare 
And feed me with a shepherd's care; 
His presence shall my wants supply 
And guard me with a watchful eye. 

The "Travellers' Hymn:" 

How are thy servants blessed, O Lord, 

How sure is their defence! 
Eternal Wisdom is their Guide, 

Their help Omnipotence. 

and the beautiful hymn beginning: 

The spacious firmament on high, 
With all the blue, ethereal sky, 
And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame, 
Their great Original proclaim. 

Rev. Benjamin Schmolck (1 672-1 737). 

Benjamin Schmolck, son of Rev. Martin Schmolck, a Lutheran 
pastor, was born in 1672. He was well known in his own district as a 
popular and useful preacher, a diligent pastor, and a man of wonderful 
tact and discretion. It was, however, his devotional books and the 
original hymns therein contained, that brought him into wide popularity, 



24 FAVORITE HYMNS 

and carried his name and fame all over Germany. Schmolck was the 
most popular hymn-writer of his time. He is the author of some 900 
hymns, properly so called. A deep and genuine personal religion, and a 
fervent love to the Saviour, inspire his best hymns; and as they are not 
simply thought out, but felt, they come from the heart to the heart. 
Probably as a result of his exhaustive labors as a Lutheran pastor, he 
had a stroke of paralysis in 1730, after which he never recovered the use 
of his right arm. For five years more he was able to officiate, but two 
more strokes followed, and the message of release came to him on the 
anniversary of his wedding, February 12, 1737. 

Many sad and tender associations are connected with his beautiful 
hymn, which is often sung at funerals, beginning: 

My Jesus, as Thou wilt! 

Oh, may Thy will be mine! 
Into Thy hand of love 

I would my all resign. 

We are indebted to the same author for the Sabbath hymn, beginning: 

Light of light, enlighten me! 

Now anew the day is dawning: 
Sun of grace, the shadows flee; 

Brighten Thou my Sabbath morning! 

Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. (1674-1748). 

Dr. Watts was descended through his mother, from a Huguenot 
family driven from France by the persecutions in the early part of Queen 
Elizabeth's reign. His father was a deacon of the Independent Church 
at Southampton, where Isaac was born in 1674. His ancestors had been 
musical: his father was not only a man of taste and intelligence, but was 
given to " versing"; and his mother used to offer in their boarding school 
prizes of farthings for the best poetical effusions. For three years Watts 
pursued his studies for the Dissenting ministry at Newington, now ab- 
sorbed in London, and at little more than eighteen returned to his father's 
house to devote himself to more private reading and study in preparation 
for the sacred office. At about this time Isaac greatly complained of 
the entire want of taste in the hymns generally used, and in return was 
challenged to produce something better. Conscious of his powers, he 
responded by writing an original hymn for the close of a Sabbath service 
in Southampton. It was the hymn beginning: 




Hfajuc 




AND THEIR AUTHORS 25 

Behold the glories of the Lamb, 

Amidst His Father's throne; 
Prepare new honors for His name, 

And songs before unknown. 

To the devotional instincts of the worshipers so welcome was this 
"new song," that the author was invited to write other hymns for use 
in the same church, and soon he produced a sufficient number to form 
the basis of a book. 

Such was the beginning of a work which has aided millions in their 
devotions, and which will, probably, be useful to the Church to the end 
of time. Henry Y/ard Beecher, in expressing his partiality to Dr. Watts, 
said: "A comparison of his hymns and psalms with the best effusions of 
of the best hymn-writers has only served to increase our admiration, and 
our conviction that he stands incomparably above all other English 
writers. Nor do we believe any other man, in any department, has 
contributed so great a share of enjoyment, edification, and inspiration 
to struggling Christians as Dr. Watts." His name holds a steady place 
as a benefactor, and his best thoughts, like ministering angels, still traverse 
every portion of the Christian world on the multitudinous wings of song. 

Dr. Philip Doddridge was contemporary with Dr. Watts, and a very 
cordial friendship existed between these two great Nonconformist hymn- 
writers. 

Watts lived a tranquil, uneventful life ,passing thirty-four years in 
the seclusion of Alney Park, a nobleman's seat where he had been invited 
to make a home. His health was always delicate. He was small in 
stature and lacking in personal beauty, and on this account he was dis- 
appointed in his hopes of domestic happiness. The lady to whom he 
proposed marriage said she "loved the jewel, but could not admire the 
casket which contained it." In the first shadow of this trial he wrote 
the hymn beginning: 

"How vain are all things here below," 
and closing with : 

Dear Saviour, let thy beauties be 

My soul's eternal food: 
And grace command my heart away 

From all created good. 

The hymn beginning, 

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun," 



26 FAVORITE HYMNS 

is probably Watts' best ascription of praise, and his nearest approach 
to Bishop Ken's universal doxology. After five generations of service 
it has entered a new field as a missionary hymn. 
The hymn beginning with the stanza: 

I'll praise my Maker while I've breath; 
And when my voice is lost in death, 

Praise shall employ my nobler powers. 
My days of praise shall ne'er be past; 
While life, and thought, and being last, 

Or immortality endures, 

was sung by John Wesley when dying. 

The serene close of Dr. Watts' life was in harmony with the spirit 
of his stanza. "I thank God," he used to say in old age, "that I can lie 
down in comfort at night, not being solicitous whether I wake in this 
world or another." His tomb in the unconsecrated dust of Bunhill 
Fields still invites the steps of the traveler, and his effigy in Westminister 
Abbey commands a larger respect than the busts of kings. A few of Dr. 
Watts' familiar hymns will be recalled by their first lines, as follows: 

"Before Jehovah's awful throne," 
"Come, we who love the Lord," 
"Sweet is the work, my God, my King," 
"Joy to the world! the Lord is come," 
"Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove," 
"God is the refuge of his saints," 
"The Lord my Shepherd is," 
"There is a land of pure delight." 

Alexander Pope (i 688-1 744). 

Alexander Pope, the poet, son of a wholesale linen merchant in 
London, was born in 1688. His father being a Roman Catholic, he was 
first placed under the charge of Father Tavener, who taught him the 
rudiments of Greek and Latin. Later he attended school at Winchester, 
and when about twelve he retired to Binfield in Windsor Forest, and from 
thenceforth his education was mainly in his own hands. His subsequent 
success as a writer and poet is a matter of history. He died in 1744, 
and was buried in a vault in Twickenham church. Addison speaks of 
Pope as "a friend of mine, in the country, who is not ashamed to employ 
his wit in the praise of his Maker." 

Pope's most famous religious poems are, "The Universal Prayer"; 

a triumphant Christian anthem, beginning: 

Vital spark of heavenly flame, 
Quit, oh quit this mortal frame, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 27 



and his fine, prophetic hymn, which has been adopted by the universal 
Church as a missionary hymn, beginning: 

Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise; 
Exalt thy towering head and lift thine eyes; 
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display, 
And break upon thee in a flood of day. 

Gerhard Tersteegen (1697-1769). 

Gerhard Tersteegen, one of the most eminent religious poets of the 
Reformed German church in its early days, was born in 1697, in the 
town of Mors, in Westphalia. He was left an orphan in boyhood by the 
death of his father, and as his mother's means were limited, he was put 
to work as an apprentice when very young at Muhlheim on the Rhur. 
When about fifteen years of age, he was riding one day to Duisburg in 
a deep forest alone, when he suddenly fell ill, being thrown into violent 
convulsions that threatened his life. He fell upon his knees and implored 
God to spare his life, that he might prepare for eternity. He experienced 
almost immediate relief, and at once devoted his life to Christ. He 
seemed to be drawn into closer fellowship with God as youth ripened into 
manhood, and to live, as it were, on the heavenly confines as manhood 
fruited in a serene and cloudless old age. At the age of twenty seven, 
he dedicated all his resources and energies to the cause of Christ, writing 
the dedication in his own blood. 

When he was thirty years of age a great spiritual awakening was 
experienced at Muhlheim, and although Tersteegen shrank from public 
notice, he was prevailed upon to address the people in private houses, 
but was soon compelled to enter upon more public labors. He gave up 
secular employments altogether, and devoted his whole time to religious 
instruction and to the poor. His house became famous as the Pilgrim 
Cottage, and was visited, not only by the most eminent Christians of 
Germany, but by multitudes of people from foreign lands, and from his 
humble home he shed a blessed influence over large numbers who sought 
his counsel. Thus beloved at home and revered and respected abroad, 
his life drew near a triumphant exit, which took place in 1769. He lived 
an ascetic life in his best years, practicing austerities, that no physical 
impediment might hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in conforming his 
soul to the will of God. He produced one hundred religious poems and 
spiritual songs, some of the best of which Wesley translated, and whose 
authorship is attributed to Wesley in most American collections of hymns. 



28 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Following are the first and last two verses of one of Tersteegen' 
most beautiful hymns. 

God calling yet — and shall I never hearken? 
But still earth's witcheries my spirit darken; 
This passing life, these passing joys, all flying, 
And still my soul in dreamy slumber lying. 

God calling yet! — and I no answer giving; 
I dread his yoke, and am in bondage living. 
Too long I linger, but not yet forsaken, , 
He calls me still — O my poor heart, awaken! 

Oh, calling yet! — I can no longer tarry, 

Nor to my God a heart divided carry; 

Now, vain and giddy world, your spells are broken. 

Sweeter than all! the voice of God hath spoken. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Eighteenth Century. 



To Thee, whose temple is all space, 

Whose altar, earth, sea, skies! 
One chorus let all being raise! 

All Nature's incense rise ! 

Alexander Pope. 




Rev. Philip Doddridge, D. D. (1702-1751). 

NE of the earliest names in the long list of English writers 
of the eighteenth century is that of Dr. Philip Doddridge, 
who was born in London June 26, 1702. He was edu- 
cated at a nonconformist seminary at Keb worth and 
received his D. D. degree from the University at Aber- 
deen. The settled work of his life as a preceptor and divine began in 
1729, at Northampton, and continued till in the last stages of consump- 
tion he sailed to Lisbon in 1751, where he died in October of the same 
year. Two hundred pupils in all, gathered from England, Scotland and 
Holland, were prepared in his seminary, chiefly for the dissenting min- 
istry. 

Many of Dr. Doddridge's hymns are found in our best books. These 
valued productions were not published by himself, but edited by the 
Rev. Job Orton, who was also one of his students and his earliest bio- 
grapher. 

The preparation of his hymns furnished a fine illustration of Dod- 
dridge's versatility of powers When he had finished the preparation of 
a discourse, and his heart was still glowing with the sentiment that had 
inspired him, it was his custom to put the principal thoughts into metre 
and use the hymns thus written at the conclusion of the preaching of the 
sermon. These hymns supplied his hearers with a compend of his in- 
structions, which might greatly aid their memories and their devotions. 



30 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Most of the sermons to which they pertained have disappeared forever; 
but his beautiful and inspiring hymns not only accomplished the purpose 
for which they were intended, but were destined to carry the devout 
emotions of Doddridge to every shore where his Master is beloved and 
where the praises of the "God of Jacob" are sung. 

The hymns of Doddridge which have attained to the greatest popu- 
larity are: — 

"O God of Jacob (Bethel) by whose hand;" 
"Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve;" 
"Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?" 
"Grace, 'tis a charming sound;" 
"O happy day that fixed my choice;" 
"See Israel's gentle shepherd stand;" 
"How gentle God's commands;" 
"Triumphant Zion, lift thy head." 



The Wesleys. 

While Dr. Doddridge was learning from his mother's lips, in their 
house in London, how the God who led Israel through the wilderness 
rescued his exiled grandfather from Bohemia, — while the first edition of 
Watts' hymn-book was being eagerly bought up in a single year, — John 
and Charles Wesley were spending their childhood in the countiy parson- 
age at Epworth, in Lincolnshire. The old puritan blood ran in their 
veins: their father's grandfather and father had both been ejected from 
the Established Church in 1662, and the younger of these had often been 
in prison for his Nonconformity. Their mother's father, the Rev. Dr. 
Annesley, was also one of the early Nonconformists. The well known 
history of the Wesleys at Epworth gives us a vivid picture of the best 
side of a clergyman's family in the early part of the eighteenth century. 
The admirable wife and mother was undoubtedly the central figure in 
the group, but the father, and not Mrs. Wesley, set the example of writ- 
ing poetry himself, and transmitted the taste to his children. The father 
and his three sons all wrote hymns which were suitable for public worship, 
while one of the daughters, Mehetable, who was a highly cultured and 
gifted woman, though not a hymn-writer, wrote poetry which sometimes 
rises to the level of her brother Charles' best productions. John and 
Charles Wesley were born at Epworth rectory, John in 1703, and Charles, 
who was the youngest and eighteenth child of Samuel and Susanna Wes- 
ley, was born in 1708. 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 31 

Rev. John Wesley, M. A. (1703- 1791). 

John Wesley, like the rest of the family, received his early education 
from his mother. His education was continued at Charterhouse school 
and Christ Church college in Oxford, and having taken his degree, he 
received Holy Orders from the Bishop of Oxford in 1725. In 1726 he 
was elected Fellow of Lincoln college and remained at Oxford until 1727, 
when he returned into Lincolnshire to assist his father as curate at Ep- 
worth and Wroot. In 1729 he was summoned back to Oxford to assist 
in the college tuition. There he found already established the little 
band of Oxford Methodists who immediately placed themselves under 
his direction. After a short ministry in Georgia in this country, whither 
he had been sent as a missionary by the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel, he returned home in 1738, and in London he fell in with the 
Moravians, especially with Peter Bohler. One memorable night, at one 
of their meetings, he met with the change which God works in the heart 
by faith in Christ. An assurance was given him that his sins were taken 
away, and that he was saved from the law of sin and death. From that 
moment his future course was sealed, and for more than half a century 
he labored, through evil report and good report, to spread what he be- 
lieved to be the everlasting Gospel, traveling more miles, preaching more 
sermons, publishing more books of a practical sort, and making more 
converts than any other man of his day, or perhaps of any day, and dying 
at last, March 2, 1791, in harness, at the age of 88. 

With that wonderful instinct for gaging the popular mind which 
was one element of his success, John Wesley saw at once that hymns 
might be utilized, not only for raising the devotion, but also for instruct- 
ing, and establishing the faith of his disciples. He intended the hymns 
to be not merely a constituent part of public worship, but also a kind of 
creed in verse. He was intimately associated with his brother Charles, 
both in evangelistic work and in the production and publishing of hymns, 
and it is not easy to ascertain the part which he actually took in writing 
the hymns, but it is certain that more than thirty translations from the 
German, French and Spanish (chiefly German) were exclusively his, and 
there are some original hymns, admittedly his, which are not unworthy 
to stand by the side of his brother's. 

The well known hymn beginning: 

"How happy is the pilgrim's lot;" 



32 FAVORITE HYMNS 

was written by John Wesley at the most stormy and tempestuous period 
of his life, when his lot from a worldly point of view would have been 
deemed anything but happy. The hymn in the original is autobiograph- 
ical. Wesley had at the time of writing no wife, and he held no prop- 
erty, having made over his estates to trustees. He says: 

No foot of land do I possess, 
No cottage in the wilderness; 

A poor wayfaring man, 
I lodge awhile in tents below, 
Or gladly wander to and fro, ' 

Till I my Canaan gain. 

John Wesley was disposed to regard lightly all the distressing self- 
sacrifice and suffering associated with his itinerant labors. After a most 
calamitous journey, he once was known to declare: 

Pain, disappointment, sickness, strife, 
Whate'er molests or troubles life, 
When past, as nothing we esteem, 
And pain like pleasure is a dream. 

Lady Huntingdon (1707-1791). 

Selina Shirley, second daughter of Earl Ferras, was born in Chartley, 
August 27, 1707. At the age of twenty-one she was married to Theo- 
philus, Earl of Huntingdon. Both by birth and by marriage Lady Hunt- 
ingdon was introduced to all the splendors and excitements of high English 
life. Her gifts and graces fitted her to shine in the most elegant circles 
of England, but her life comes down to us linked with the Redeemer's 
cause, and her name is enrolled among those who have loved and labored 
for their Lord. At the residence of her aunt, Lady Fanny Shirley, at 
Twickenham, which formed one of the literary centres of the day, she 
mingled freely with the wits, poets, and authors, then distinguished in 
the walks of English literature. At the time of Lady Huntingdon's mar- 
riage, there was a band of students in the bosom of Oxford University 
who, by prayer and fasting and a rigid self-denial, had laid hold upon 
the great doctrines of the Gospel, and were wrestling with them, like one 
of old, for a heavenly benediction. Shocked by the scoffing tone and 
degraded aims of their fellows, and disgusted with the prevailing shallow 
piety of the pulpit and church, they asked, is there not something holier 
and loftier than this in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Can it not redeem 
from sin and exalt by the power of an endless life? Profoundly earnest, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 33 

they accepted the Bible in its integrity, and gave themselves to the ser- 
vice of the Lord with their whole hearts. On leaving Oxford, White- 
field at Bristol, Ingham in Yorkshire, and Wesley at London, began 
those fearless and awakening appeals which quickened the vitality of 
English Christianity, reasserting its demands upon the moral conscious- 
ness of the nation. 

In Lady Huntingdon they found an ardent friend, and a fearless 
advocate of their new movements. Both the Earl and his wife became 
frequent attendants upon the ministry of Wesley; and while Lady Hunt- 
ingdon took great delight in the society of her new Christian friends, she 
did not forget to urge upon her former associates the claims of that 
gospel which she had found so precious to her own soul. 

Among her friends and guests we find dear familiar and honored 
names. The venerable Dr. Watts, author of many a learned treatise 
and of those psalms and hymns which are destined to shape the exper- 
ience and lead the worship of millions, when the fame of his learning 
shall no more be remembered: another, one whom Dr. Watts tenderly 
loves, is the popular preacher and successful teacher, Philip Doddridge, 
who also won his most enduring laurels as a writer of hymns. White- 
field, the Wesleys, Ingham, Howel Harris, a Welsh Boanerges, who was 
preaching the doctrines of the cross, and forming societies in his native 
land; Romaine, a great reviver of evangelistic truth in the churches in 
London, and author of "Walk of Faith"; Venn, an eminently useful 
preacher and writer of that day; Grimshaw, whose record is that, in the 
bleak and impromising parish of Haworth he preached, on what he called 
his idle week, twelve or fourteen times; his busy week from twenty-four 
to thirty, going also from house to house, visiting the sick, instructing 
the ignorant, comforting the sorrowful, and helping the aged toward 
heaven; Berridge, the eccentric but zealous preacher, whose life was as 
stirring as a hundred miles' riding, with ten or twelve sermons a week 
could make it, and that for a period of nearly five and twenty years; the 
famous preacher, of whom Sheridan said, "I like to go and hear Rowland 
Hill, because his ideas come red-hot from the heart;" Madan, Haweis 
and Harvey were among the famous names that are found on Lady Hunt- 
ingdon's long list of devoted friends and correspondents, who were cheered 
and encouraged by her letters, and helped in every possible way in their 
work by this noble lady, who, though a peeress, was a humble and devoted 



34 FAVORITE HYMNS 



servant of her Lord, and could sing in the words of her distinguished 
co-temporary, John Newton: 

"One there is above all others, 

Well deserves the name of Friend." 

Lady Huntingdon's wealth enabled her to build chapels in places 
where they were needed for the accommodation of the multitudes of 
poor people who were converted by the labors of the famous preachers 
of her day, and to give liberally for the support of institutions of learn- 
ing, and other good works. 

She was not a writer of famous hymns, herself, but she was "the 
power behind the throne," whose influence over the lives and fortunes 
of the great hymn-writers of her day, with whom she was so intimately 
associated, cannot be measured. Her long life of usefulness was closed 
June 17, 1791. A few hours before the last struggle she whispered joy- 
fully, "I shall go home to my Father to-night." 

The best known hymn attributed to Lady Huntington is the one 
beginning: 

When thou, my righteous judge, shalt come 
To take thy ransomed people home, 

Shall I among them stand? 
Shall such a worthless worm as I, 
Who sometimes am afraid to die, 

Be found at thy right hand? 

Rev. Charles Wesley, M. A. (170S-1788). 

Charles Wesley was educated at Westminster school and Christ 
Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college 
tutor. In 1737 he came under the influence of Count Zinzendorf and the 
Moravians, and on Whitsunday, 1738, he "found rest to his soul." Hence- 
forth his work was identified with that of his brother John, and he became 
an indefatigable itinerant and field preacher. He died in London, March 
29, 1788, at the age of 80. 

As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have 
written no less than 6500 hymns, and it is perfectly marvellous how many 
of them rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every 
occasion of importance, whether public or private, found their best ex- 
pression in a hymn. On his preaching tours, by the roadside, amidst 
hostile mobs or devout congregations, and in his old age, in his quiet 
journeyings from friend to friend, hymns which are really good in every 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 35 

respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped 
the course of the perennial stream. 

Those hymns have been a liturgy engraved on the hearts of thousands 
of the poor, and have aided in bearing the name of Jesus far and wide, 
writing it deep on countless hearts. They express even now every Sab- 
bath the religious emotions of tens of thousands of worshippers; and 
during their whole history they have comforted the souls and fluttered 
on the dying lips of myriads now before the Throne. 

Charles Wesley's hymns were written under a great variety of cir- 
cumstances, and nearly all furnish a record of personal experience. Thus 
his jubilant devotional hymn beginning, 

"Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing," 
was written for the anniversary of one's conversion, probably just a 
year after his own conversion. The hymn beginning: 

Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go, 

My daily labors to pursue; 
Thee, only thee, resolved to know, 

In all I think, or speak, or do. 

has reference to his itinerant preaching. 

That which is made to begin in many hymn-books with the second 
stanza, 

Lo! on a narrow neck of land, 
'Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand; 
Secure, insensible: 

is said to have been written at Land's End in Cornwall, with the British 
Channel and the broad Atlantic in view, and surging around the "narrow 
neck of land" on either hand. Several other familiar hymns are indicated 
by their first lines, as follows: 

"Jesus, lover of my soul; " 
"Come, Thou almighty King;" 
"Come, Thou long expected Jesus; " 
"Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day;" 
"Sinners, turn! Why will ye die?" 
"Depth of mercy, can there be;" 
"A charge to keep I have;" 
"Love divine, all loves excelling;" 
"Let saints on earth in concert sing;" 
"I know that my Redeemer lives; " 

Miss Annie Steele (17 16-1778). 

Miss Anne Steele was the eldest daughter of the Rev. William Steele, 
pastor of the Baptist church at Broughton, Hampshire. She was called 



36 FAVORITE HYMNS 



"Mrs." Steele in England, although she never was married, and this 
prefix has been retained in some of our hymnals. It has been custom- 
ary in England to thus honor maiden ladies entitled to especial respect. 

Miss Steele was born in 1716. At the age of fourteen she united 
with the church under the pastorate of her father, sustaining that con- 
nection till her death in 1778. At an early age she showed a taste for 
literature, and her friends were often entertained by her poetical com- 
positions, but she was unwilling that what she wrote should be made 
public, and though she at length yielded to the importunities of her 
friends, she always withheld her name. 

Among Baptist hymn-writers Miss Steele stands at the head, whether 
we consider the number of her hymns, or the frequency with which they 
have been sung. Her hymns are almost uniformly simple in language , 
natural and pleasing in imagery, and full of genuine Christian feeling. 

She was a great sufferer, and from a life of severe discipline grew 
those sweet Christian graces which find expression in her hymns. In 
consequence of an accident in her childhood her health was always deli- 
cate, and she suffered from a great sorrow which befell her in the death 
of her betrothed under peculiarly painful circumstances. After this 
sudden and shocking bereavement, she spent her life in retirement, seek- 
ing consolation in the exercises of piety, charity, and the inspirations of 
her pen. The death of her father, to whom she was ardently attached, 
deepened her sorrow and gave such a shock to her frame that she never 
recovered from it. From the period of her father's decease she was con- 
fined to her chamber, and she looked with sweet resignation to the time 
of her removal from earth; and when it happily arrived, she was, amidst 
great pain, full of peace and joy. Shortly before her departure she said: 

"I know that my Redeemer liveth," 
and with this blessed assurance, she at last realized a full answer to her 
life-long prayer: 

Let the sweet hope that thou art mine 

My life and death attend; 
Thy presence through my journey shine, 

And crown my journey's end. 

It has been truly said that "some hymns could never have been 
written, but for a heart stroke that wellnigh crushed out the life. It is 
cleft in two by bereavement, and out of the rift comes forth, as by resur- 
rection the form and voice that shall never die out of the world." Some 
of Mrs. Steele's hymns are freighted with the "far more exceeding weight 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 37 

of glory" which her afflictions worked out for her in her earthly life, and 
having drawn from the only true Source of comfort in all her trials, she 
was able to comfort and renew the courage and strength of many tried 
and tempted souls who were vainly trying to understand the mystery 
and mission of sorrow. Among her hymns which seem to condense and 
represent her whole life are those commencing with the following familiar 
stanzas : 

Father, whate'er of earthly bliss 

Thy sovereign will denies, 
Accepted at Thy throne of grace, 

Let this petition rise. 

Dear refuge of my weary soul, 

On Thee, when sorrows rise, 
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll, 

My fainting hope relies. 

Many of Mrs. Steele's hymns are devout ascriptions of praise and 
prayer, having no reference to her own sad experience. Of these, the 
following may be named: 

"Come, Thou desire of all Thy saints;" 
"Father of mercies! in Thy word;" 
"Come, ye that love the Saviour's name;" 
"To our Redeemer's glorious name." 

Rev. Benjamin Beddome (17 17-1795). 

This prolific hymn-writer was born at Henley-in-Arden, Warwick- 
shire, January 23, 1717, where his father, the Rev. John Beddome, was 
at that time Baptist minister. He was a man of considerable talents and 
high attainments, but who chose to spend the far greater portion of a 
long life in the seclusion of a small country village. At the call of his 
church he devoted himself to the work of the Christian ministry, and in 
1740 began to preach in Bourton, in Gloucestershire. Declining invita- 
tions to remove to London or elsewhere, he continued pastor at Bourton 
until his death on September 3, 1795, at the age of 78. Mr. Beddome 
was for many years one of the most respected Baptist ministers in the 
West of England. It was his practice to prepare a hymn every week 
to be sung after his Sunday morning sermon. His ministrations retained 
to the very last all their liveliness and attractions, improved by the in- 
creased solemnity and wisdom of age. His earnest desire that he might 
not be long laid aside from his beloved employment was fully gratified, 
for, having during his infirmities been carried to the house of God, he 



38 FAVORITE HYMNS 



preached sitting, and was only confined to his house one Lord's day. In 
the year 1818 a volume of his hymns was published, with a short but 
beautiful preface by Robert Hall, who says: "The man of taste will 
be gratified with the beautiful and original thoughts which many of them 
exhibit, while the experimental Christian will often perceive the most 
sweet movements of his soul strikingly delineated, and sentiments por- 
trayed which will find their echo in every heart." About forty of Bed- 
dome's hymns have been in common use. One. of his most familiar 
hymns begins with: — 

God in the Gospel of His Son, 
Makes His eternal counsels known; 

while several of his best hymns are indicated by their first lines, as follows : 

"Let party names no more; " 
"My times of sorrow and of joy;" 
"Ye trembling souls, dismiss your fears;" 
"Come, Holy Spirit, come." 



CHAPTER V. 

Eighteenth Century. 



The Soul, reposing on assured belief, 
Feels herself happy amidst all her grief; 
Forgets her labors, as she toils along, 
Weeps tears of joy, and bursts into a song. 

William Cowper 




Rev. William Williams (171 7-1 791). 

ILLIAM Williams, who has been called the Watts of Wales, 
was born in Carmarthenshire in 1717, and was originally 
educated for the medical profession. He was awakened 
to the importance of personal religion while listening to 
the words of the once famous preacher, Howel Harris, 
in Talgarth churchyard. His experience was a clear one, and the duty 
of becoming a preacher was made plain to him. He was ordained a 
curate in the English church, but at the age of thirty-two he left the 
Established Church and became an itinerant Methodist preacher. Work- 
ing in connection with such zealous ministers as Harris and Rowlands, 
he became a very popular preacher, and his local fame greatly increased 
when to Welsh eloquence he added the choicest gifts of song, and began 
to publish his highly experimental hymns. For forty-three years his 
labors were incessant and greatly blessed. He published several hymn- 
books in his own language, which have been much used. 

The inspiring words of the hymn beginning with the stanza: 

O'er the gloomy hills of darkness, 
Cheered by no celestial ray, 
Sun of Righteousness! arising, 

Bring the bright, the glorious day: 

Send the gospel 
To the earth's remotest bound; 

were written long before the beginning of foreign missionary enterprises, 
while Williams was yet traversing the lonely mountains of Wales, and 
looking for the dawn of a brighter religious day. 



40 FAVORITE HYMNS 



The famous hymn beginning: 

"Guide me, O thou great Jehovah; 7 ' 

originally appeared in a collection called "Gloria in Excelsis," prepared 
by Williams, at Lady Huntingdon's request, for Mr. Whitefield's Orphans' 
House in America. 

Rev. John Cennick (17 18-1755). 

John Cennick was born at Reading, England, December 12, 1718. 
He was for some time a land surveyor, but becoming acquainted with 
the Wesleys in 1739, he was appointed by John Wesley as a teacher of 
a school for colliers' children at Kingswood in the following year. This 
was followed by his becoming a lay preacher, but in 1740 he parted with 
the Wesleys on doctrinal grounds. He assisted Whitefield until 1745, 
when he joined the Moravians. He died at an early age, in 1755. He 
was a prolific and successful writer of hymns, many of which are widely 
known. 

The age of fifteen did not find Cennick a promising youth. He was 
fond of cards, novels, and stage plays, and, but for his warm, susceptible 
feelings, he might have been classed among the profitless boys of the 
town. But he was not happy. His conscience was ever ill at ease, and 
solitude constantly presented to his mind the gloomy reflection that the 
days of his youth were swiftly passing, that manhood, too, must soon be 
gone, and he must die. During two years of anxious concern, he sought 
for the peace that religion imparts by reforming his conduct, and by 
practicing self-denial and austerities; but the unrest still remained, and 
the great conflict went on in his soul. 

One day, while thus sorely tried, and brought almost to the verge 
of despair, he met with the words, "I am thy salvation." The text was 
like a revelation to him. It lifted the veil that had long darkened his 
mind, and he saw the way of peace and safety by casting himself wholly 
on the mercy of Christ. His mind was filled with unspeakable joy on 
believing that Jesus would "take him to Him" as he was, with all his 
imperfections, and pardon all his sin. He now found peace to his soul, 
and the constant theme of his conversation was "peace and pardon through 
the blood of Christ." He afterward told his happy experience in a hymn, 
b eginning: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 41 

Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone, 
He whom I fix my hopes upon; 
His path I see, and I'll pursue 
The narrow way till Him I view. 

The more I strove against his power, 
I felt the weight and guilt the more, 
Till late I heard the Saviour say, 
Come hither, soul, I am the way. 

The following verse will recall another familiar hymn by Cennick: 

Children of the heav'nly King, 
As ye journey, sweetly sing; 
Sing our Saviour's worthy praise, 
Glorious in his works and ways. 

Rev. Joseph Grigg (i 720-1 768). 

Joseph Grigg was the son of poor parents and was brought up to 
mechanical pursuits. In 1743 he forsook his trade and became assistant 
pastor to the Rev. Thomas Bures, of the Presbyterian church, Silver 
street, London. On the death of Mr. Bures in 1747, he retired from the 
ministry, and marrying a lady of property, took up his residence at St. 
Albans. He died at Walthamstow, Essex, in 1768. His hymn-writing 
began, it is said, at ten years of age. His published works of various 
kinds number over forty. Grigg is chiefly known by two of his hymns : — 

Jesus, and shall it ever be, 
A mortal man ashamed of Thee? 
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise, 
Whose glories shine through endless days? 

and the familiar hymn: 

"Behold, a stranger at the door." 

Rev. John Bakewell (1721-1819). 

The early part of the nineteenth century found England as well 
supplied with poets as with "evangelical" preachers. H. Butterworth 
says, "England was as full of poets," at this time, "as her greenwoods 
are full of singing birds." Charles Wesley not only transmitted his zeal 
and inspiration as a preacher of the Gospel to his followers, but the con- 
tagion of his poetical genius seems to have taken possession of them to a 
remarkable degree. Many of the preachers of that period were poets, 
or hymn-writers, and the list of those whose hymns are still in use is a 
long one. 



42 FAVORITE HYMNS 



One of the first preacher-poets whose life extended into the nine- 
teenth century was John Bakewell, who was born at Brailsford, Derby- 
shire in 1721. At the age of eighteen his mind was turned toward re- 
ligious truths. From that date he became an ardent evangelist, and in 
1744 he began to preach. He removed to London, not long afterward, 
where he became acquainted with the Wesleys, M. Madan, A. M. Toplady, 
J. Fletcher, and other evangelical men. He was a man of piety, earnest- 
ness and consecration, and proved to be one of Mr. Wesley's most efficient 
workers. He was for several years Master of the Greenwich Royal Park 
Academy. It was at his house that Thomas Olivers wrote his justly 
famous and much admired hymn, "The God of Abram praise." He 
died in 1819, aged 98. The epitaph upon his tombstone, written by 
John Wesley, states that "he adorned the doctrines of God our Saviour eigh- 
ty years, and preached his glorious gospel about seventy years. "His most 
famous hymn, now in common use, is the one beginning: — 



Hail, Thou once despised Jesus! 

Hail, Thou Galilean King! 
Thou didst suffer to release us; 

Thou didst free salvation bring. 



Rev. Thomas Olivers (i 725-1 799). 

Thomas Olivers was born in Wales in 1725, and died suddenly in 
London in 1799. He was said to have been "the worst boy that had 
been known in all that country in thirty years." He was a poor orphan 
boy, who in the friendlessness of youth had been led astray, and whose 
life had become a continual dishonor. But this youth had a tender con- 
science, which burned within him like a flame in his lonely hours, and 
in all his lapses and far- wanderings, he was ever resolving to mend his 
ways, and to lead a life that would restore to him a calm mind. At last 
these resolutions got the better of his moral weakness, and he began to 
pray. Conscience at length asserted its authority, and he was completely 
broken down with an overwhelming sense of guilt. Providence led him 
to an old seaport town in England, where Whitefield had an appointment 
to preach. He determined to go and hear the discourse of the great 
preacher, which promised to be helpful in his case. "When the sermon 
began," he says, "I was one of the most abandoned and profligate young 
men living: before it ended I was a new creature." "The worst boy in 
all that country" was now a happy man. Besetting sins lost their power, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 43 

and heavenly joys were his continually. He became a preacher. He was 
ready to endure any hardship, and persecution, anything for the strong 
love of Christ. In an hour of gratitude for so great a deliverance, and for 
such mighty power to uphold his soul, he penned his experience hi a 
hymn, which has become one of the thanksgivings of the ages. This well 
known hymn begins with the stanza: — 

The God of Abraham praise, 

Who reigns enthroned above; 
Ancient of everlasting days, 

And God of love : 
Jehovah, great I AM! 

By earth and heaven conf est : 
I bow and bless the sacred name, 

Forever blest. 

The Rev. John Fletcher said of Olivers: "This author was, twenty- 
five years ago, a mechanic, and like Peter, a fisherman, and Saul, or Paul, 
a tent-maker, has had the honor of being promoted to the dignity of a 
preacher of the gospel; and his talents as a writer, a logician, a poet, 
and a composer of sacred music are known to those who have looked 
into his publications." He was originally a shoemaker, and John Wesley 
referred to his vocation when, in speaking of his compeers, he thus refers 
to Olivers: — 

"I've Thomas Olivers the cobbler, 
(No stall in England holds a nobler) 
A wight of talent universal, 
Whereof I'll give a brief rehearsal: 
He with one brandish of his quill 
Will knock down Toplady and Hill." 

Rev. John Newton (1725- 1807). 

John Newton was born in London, July 24, 1725. His mother, a 
pious dissenter, stored his childish mind with Scripture, but died when 
he was seven years old. At the age of eleven, after two years' schooling, 
he went to sea with his father. He grew into an abandoned and godless 
sailor, and ran "to great excess of riot." 

Disappointing repeatedly the plans of his father, he was flogged as a 
deserter from the navy, and for fifteen months lived, half-starved and 
ill-treated, in abject degradation under a slave-dealer in Africa. A chance 
reading of "Thomas a Kempis" sowed the seed of his conversion, which 
was quickened by the awful experience of a night spent in steering a 
water-logged vessel in the face of apparent death (1748). He was then 



44 FAVORITE HYMNS 



twenty-three years of age. During the six following years, although he 
commanded a slave ship, his Christian belief was strengthened and estab- 
lished. Nine years more spent chiefly at Liverpool, in intercourse with 
Whitefield, Wesley, and other nonconformists, in the study of Hebrew 
and Greek, elapsed before his ordination to the curacy of Olney, Bucks 
(1764). The Olney period was the most fruitful of his life. His zeal 
in pastoral visiting, preaching and prayermeetings was unwearied. He 
formed his lifelong friendship with Cowper, and became the spiritual 
father of Scott, the commentator. At Olney his best works, including the 
Olney Hymns, were composed. 

As rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, (1780-1807), his zeal was 
as ardent as before. In 1805, when no longer able to read his text, his 
reply when pressed to discontinue preaching was, "What, shall the old 
African blasphemer stop while he can speak!" The story of his sins and 
his conversion, published by himself, was the base of his influence as a 
preacher, but it would have been little but for the vigor of his mind, his 
warm heart, tolerance and piety. Newton's checkered career was closed 
when he died in London, December 21, 1807, and the hope expressed in 
the words of one of his hymns was changed to glad fruition: — 

"Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, 

And mortal life shall cease, 
I shall possess within the vail, 

A life of joy and peace. 

It is a fact worthy of remark that Newton's "Olney Hymns" were 
years ago translated into the Sherbro language by a colored man named 
Caulker, and are now sung in the very regions whose inhabitants New- 
ton assisted to carry from liberty to slavery. 

A large number of Newton's hymns have some personal history con- 
nected with them, or were associated with circumstances of importance. 
The splendid hymn of praise: — 

"Glorious things of Thee are spoken, 
Zion, city of our God," 

is his. There is a depth of realizing love and sustained excellence in: — 



"One there is above all others, 
Well deserves the name of Friend; " 



and the beautiful hymn: — 



How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, 
In a believer's ear!" 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 45 

is in structure, cadence and tenderness, equal to Cowper's, hymn begin- 
ning:— 

"0 for a closer walk with God." 

Xewton once said of himself, "I was a wild beast on the coast of 
Africa; but the Lord caught me and tamed me." As we read his hymns 
we find no taint or evidence of his former self in them; we are amazed 
at the transformation, and can only exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" 
Newton sings of this "miracle of grace" in the hymn beginning: — 

Amazing grace — how sweet the sound — 

That saved a wretch like me! 
I once was lost, but now am found; 

Was blind, but now I see. 

Several of Newton's familiar hymns will be recalled by their first 
lines, as follows: 

"Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat;" 
"May the grace of Christ, our Saviour; " 
"Safely through another week;" 
"Come, my soul, thy suit prepare;'' 
"While with ceaseless course the sun," 
"Quiet, Lord, my froward heart;" 
"Stop, poor sinner, stop and think;" 
"Mercy, O thou Son of David!" 
"How tedious and tasteless the hours." 

Rev. Edward Perronet (i 726-1 792). 

Edward Perronet, son of Vincent Perronet, M. A., a graduate of 
Queen's College, Oxford, and Vicar of Shoreham, Kent, was bom in 1726. 
He was first educated at home under a tutor, but whether he proceeded 
to the University (Oxford) is uncertain. Born, baptized and brought 
up in the Church of England, he had originally no other thought than 
to be one of the clergy. But, though strongly evangelical, he had a keen 
and searching eye for defects. The first prominent event of his life was 
the publication of a sacred poem entitled "The Mitre," a satire on con- 
temporary ecclesiastical opinion and sentiment, which hit off vigorously 
the well known celebrities in Church and State. It so aroused John 
Wesley's indignation that he demanded its instant suppression, and it 
was suppressed: and yet it was at this time that the author threw him- 
self into the Wesleys' great work. He became one of the Countess of 
Huntingdon's "ministers" in a chapel in Canterbury, where his labors 
were attended with marked success. Throughout he was passionate, 
impulsive, strong-willed, but always lived near his divine Master. 



46 FAVORITE HYMNS 



In the close of his life he is found as an Independent, or Congregational, 
pastor of a small church in Canterbury. He died January 2, 1792, and 
was buried in the cloisters of the great cathedral. His hymns were pub- 
lished anonymously in successive small volumes. 

Perronet's death was triumphant, and was the crowning evidence 
of the sincerity of the piety which inspired his rapturous hymn: — 

"All hail the power of Jesus name!" 

and others of almost equal power. 

"Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord," 

is a great and noble hymn. Very fine also is the one that opens: — 

O grant me, Lord, that sweet content 

That sweetens every state; 
Which no internal fears can rent, 

Nor outward foes abate. 

Rev. Samuel Stennett (1727-1795). 

The family of the Stennetts furnished successive ministers to the 
Baptist denomination for more than a century. The most eminent of 
the family was Samuel, the son of Rev. Joseph Stennett, D. D., pastor 
of the Baptist Church at Exeter, England. Samuel was born in 1727 
and died in 1795. His father moved to Little Wild street in London in 
1737, and in early life his son became first his assistant and afterward 
his successor. He was a personal friend of his sovereign, George III. 
He was an eminent scholar, and was offered high preferment in the Church 
of England, but his answer was, "I dwell among mine own people," and 
he resolutely declined. His hymns are extensively known and highly 
valued. He is the author of the familiar hymns beginning: 

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned 
Upon the Saviour's brow; 

Come every pious heart 

That loves the Saviour's name, 
Your noblest, powers exert 

To celebrate his fame. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 



The heart that trusts forever sings, 
And feels as light as it had wings; 
A well of peace within it springs; 

Come good or ill, 
Whate'er today, tomorrow brings, 

It is His will. 



Isaac Williams. 




William Cowper (1731-1800). 

jlLLIAM Cowper, the poet, was the son of an English clergy- 
man, who was chaplain to George the Second and rector 
of Berkhampstead, where William was born in 1731. Kis 
mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite lines 
on "My Mother's Picture," a vivid delineation of his 
childhood written in his sixtieth year, died when he was six years old. 
He was educated at Westminster, destined for the Bar, and articled to 
a solicitor in 1754. 

Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began 
to increase as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's 
death. But after all it is the playful, humorous side of him that is the 
most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar. Then came 
the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, unfitted 
him for any rational pursuit, and made him dependent upon his friends. 
He had been nominated to the clerkship of the Journals of the House 
of Lords, but the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted to take 
his life with " Laudanum, knife, and cord, " in the third attempt nearly suc- 
ceeding. The dark delusion of his life now showed itself — a belief in his 
reprobation. But under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton, 
at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which 
the first two were spent at Huntington, and the remainder at Oney in 



48 FAVORITE HYMNS 



active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guid- 
ance of John Newton, were full of the realization of Gcd's favor, and the 
happiest and most lucid period of his life. It was during this period that 
the "Olney Hymns," the joint compositions of Newton and Cowper, 
were written. A year after his brother's death his mental malady re- 
turned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he 
attempted suicide. In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, 
during which he chiefly resided in John Newton's house, patiently tended 
by him and his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. At the close of 17S0 his 
condition was so much improved that Mrs. Unwin suggested to him scire 
serious poetical work, and the occupation proved so congenial that his 
first volume was published in 1782. The dark cloud had greatly lifted 
from his life; but the loss of his dear friend, William Unwin, lowered it 
again for some months. The five years illness of Mrs. Unwin, during 
which his nurse of old became his tenderly watched patient, deepened 
the darkness more and more, and her death (1796) brought "fixed despair," 
of which his last poem, "The Castaway," is the terrible memorial. His 
great poems, and hymns, show no trace of his monomania, and are full 
of healthy piety. His death occurred April 25, 1800, and the "mysterious 
way" by which he had been led through his life of suffering, which seemed 
so dark to him when he wrote the well known hymn: — 

"God moves in a mysterious way," 
was at last made plain to him, when he found the last two lines of this 
hymn fully verified in his own vision of the love and glory of his Re- 
deemer: — 

"God is his own interpreter, 
And He will make it plain." 

The beautiful hymn: — 

"How blest thy creature is, O God!" 
is said by Cowper's biographers to have been the very first he wrote on 
his recovery at St. Albans from his first attack of insanity v He entitled 
it the "Happy Change." But the hymn: 

"Far from the world, O Lord, I flee;" 
in which he poured forth the grateful feelings of his heart is, as Dr. Cheever 
remarks, "beyond comparison more perfect, — it is exquisitely, sacredly, 
devoutly beautiful." The admirable hymn: — 

"O! for a closer walk with God," 
is perfect in structure and cadence; and exquisitely tender is: 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 49 

"Hark! my soul, it is the Lord." 
Several of Cowper's most familiar hymns will be recalled by their 
first lines, as follows : 

"Sometimes a light surprises 

The Christian while he sings;" 
"There is a fountain filled with blood;" 
"God of my life, to thee I call; " 
"Jesus, where'er Thy people meet;" 
"Hear what God, the Lord hath spoken;" 
"What various hindrances we meet;" 
"O Lord, my best desires fulfill;" 
" 'Tis my happiness below; " 

Rev. Thomas Haweis, M. D., L. L. B. (1732-1820). 

Thomas Haweis was born at Truro, Cornwall, 1732. After practicing 
for a time as a physician, he entered Christ College, Cambridge, where he 
graduated. Taking Holy Orders, he became assistant preacher to M. 
Madan at the Lock Hospital, London, and subsequently Rector of All 
Saints, Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire. He was also chaplain to Lady 
Huntingdon, and for several years officiated at her chapel in Bath. He 
died at Bath, February 11, 1820, aged 88, being then the oldest "evan- 
gelical" clergyman in the Church of England. He was the author of 
several prose works, and one of the founders of the London Missionary 
society. 

Rev. John Newton says of this good man, "The preaching of Dr. 
Haweis, which had, like the report of a cannon, sounded through the 
country, attracted vast congregations to Aldwinkle." Some of the most 
profligate persons in the neighborhood were brought to repentance and 
"the acknowledgement of the truth" under his heart-searching addresses. 
He was the author of the beautiful hymn beginning: — 

O Thou, from whom all goodness flows, 

I lift my heart to Thee; 
In all my sorrows, conflicts, woes, 

Good Lord, remember me; 

the familiar hymn beginning: — 

To Thee, my God and Saviour, 

My heart exulting sings; 
Rejoicing in Thy favor, 

Almighty King of kings; 
and: — 

"From the cross uplifted high, 
Where the Saviour deigns to die." 



50 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Rev. Robert Robinson (i 735-1 790). 

Robert Robinson, author of the familiar hymns, — 

"Come, thou Fount of every blessing," 
and 

"Mighty God, while angels bless thee," 

was born at Swaffham, in Norfolk, on September 27, 1735, of lowly parent- 
age. He lost his father in his boyhood, and his widowed mother was 
left in sore straits. The universal testimony is that she was a godly 
woman. Her ambition was to see her son a clergyman of the Church of 
England, but poverty forbade, and the boy (in his 15th year) was in- 
dentured to a barber and hairdresser in London. It was an uncongenial 
position for a bookish and thoughtful lad, and his master found him more 
given to reading than to his profession. In 1752 he was brought under 
deep religious feeling by the preaching of George Whitefield. The great 
evangelist's searching sermon on "the wrath to come" haunted him fear- 
fully. For well nigh three years he walked in darkness, and fear, but in 
his twentieth year found "peace in believing." 

Robinson remained in London until 1758 attending assiduously on 
the ministry of Wesley, Gill and other evangelical preachers, and within 
that year he removed to Norwich, where he was settled over an Indepen- 
dent congregation. In 1759, having been invited by a Baptist church 
at Cambridge (afterward made famous by Robert Hall, John Foster and 
others) he accepted the call, having been previously baptized by im- 
mersion. The "call" was simply "to supply the pulpit," but he soon 
won such regard and popularity that the congregation again and again 
requested him to accept the full pastoral charge. This he acceded to in 
1761, after persuading the people to "open communion." In 1770 he 
commenced his abundant authorship. His prose has all, more or less, of 
that vehement and enthusiastic glow of passion that belongs to the orator. 
His hymns are terse and melodious, evangelical but not sentimental. 

Rev. Samuel Medley (1 738-1 799). 

Samuel Medley was bom June 23, 1738, at Cheshunt, Herts, England, 
where his father kept a school. He received a good education, but not liking 
the business to which he was apprenticed, he entered the Royal Navy. 
Having been severely wounded in a battle with the French fleet off Port 
Lagos, in 1759, he was obliged to retire from active service. A sermon 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 51 

by Dr. Watts read to him at about this time by his pious grandfather 
led to his conversion. He joined the Baptist church at Eagle St., London, 
and shortly afterwards opened a school, which for several years he con- 
ducted with great success. Having begun to preach, he received in 1767, 
a call to become pastor of the Baptist church at Walford. Thence in 
1772, he removed to Byrom St., Liverpool, where he gathered a large 
congregation, and for twenty-seven years was remarkably popular and 
useful. After a long and painful illness, he died July 17, 1799. Medley's 
hymns have been very popular in his own denomination. Their charm 
consists less in their poetry than in the warmth and occasional pathos 
with which they give expression to Christian experience. 

In the last two verses of the familiar hymn, beginning: — 

Awake, my soul, in joyful lays, 

And sing thy great Redeemer's praise, 

we find his own fully answered prayer, and a beautiful illustration of 
the happy "death of the righteous." 

So when I pass death's gloomy vale 
And life and mortal powers shall fail, 
Oh, may my last expiring breath 
His loving kindness sing in death! 

Then shall I mount, and soar away 
To the bright world of endless day; 
There shall I sing, with sweet surprise 
His loving kindness in the skies. 

Equally triumphant is the hymn beginning: 

"O, could I speak the matchless worth." 
The hymns beginning, 



Mortals, awake! with angels join; 
Jesus, engrave it on my heart; " 



are also Medley's. 



Rev. John Fawcett, D. D. (1739-1817). 

John Fawcett was born January 6, 1739, at Lidget Green, near 
Bradford, Yorkshire. At the age of sixteen, while an apprentice, he 
heard Mr. Whitefield preach. The sermon was instrumental in his con- 
version, and he joined the Methodists, but three years later united with 
the newly-formed Baptist church in Bradford. Here his activity and 
usefulness were so great, that his brethren advised him to "go beyond 



52 FAVORITE HYMNS 



private exhortation," and "to stand forth and preach the Gospel." After 
much prayer, he was constrained to follow their advice, and in 1765 was 
ordained minister of the Baptist society at Wainsgate, near Hebden 
Bridge. After a successful pastorate of seven years, he was invited to 
London, to succeed the celebrated Dr. Gill; the invitation had been 
formally accepted, the farewell sermon at Wainsgate had been preached 
and the wagons were loaded with his goods for removal. An affecting 
scene followed, the poor people he had so long instructed and befriended 
entreating him with tears to remain. The voice of love prevailed; he 
could not sever the tie that bound him to his beloved and devoted people. 
"I will stay," he said, "you may unpack my goods, and we will still labor 
for the Lord lovingly together." The great love of his people outweighed 
the attractions of the large London church with its ample resources and 
promising field, and the good man cheerfully renewed his labors for his 
poor and scattered church on a salary of less than two hundred dollars 
a year. In 1777 a new chapel was built for him at Hebden Bridge, and 
about the same time he opened a school at Brearly Hall, his place of 
residence. In 1793 he was invited to become president of the Baptist 
Academy at Bristol, but again declined to leave his people. In 1811 he 
received from America the degree of D. D., and died in 1817. 
It is said that the well-known hymn beginning: — 

Blest be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in Christian love : 
The fellowship of kindred minds 

Is like to that above, 

was inspired by the affectionate expression of regard on the part of his 
parishioners. 

Dr. Fawcett was the author of a number of prose works on Practical 
Religion, several of which attained a large circulation. His sacred poems 
and hymns are eminently spiritual and practical. In 1782 he published 
a book entitled "Hymns Adapted to the Circumstances of Public Worship 
and Private Devotion." There were one hundred and sixty-six in num- 
ber, and they were mostly composed to be sung after sermons by the 
author. About twenty of Fawcett's hymns are still in common use. 
Among the best known of them are: — 

"Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing;" 
"Praise to Thee, Thou great Creator;" 
"How precious is the book divine; " 
"Thus far the Lord hath let me on." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 53 

Rev. Augustus M. Toplady (i 740-1778). 

This eminent man was born at Farnham, in Surrey, on November 
4, 1740. His father, Richard Toplady, was a major in the British army, 
and was killed at the siege of Carthagena (1741) soon after the birth of 
his son. The boy's widowed mother placed him at the renowned Vv x est- 
minster school, London. By-and-by her circumstances led her to Ire- 
land, and young Augustus was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, where 
he completed his academical training, ultimately graduating M. A. Ke 
also received his new birth in Ireland under remarkable conditions. When 
about the age of sixteen he chanced to go into a barn at an obscure place, 
called Codymain, to hear a layman preach. The preacher was a Wesleyan 
Methodist named James Morris, who was a born orator, though reticent 
and lowly-minded. The sermon, preached in a barn, to a handful of 
God's people, made an unexpected impression upon Toplady, and led 
to his immediate conversion. He became a minister of the Church of 
England, maintained the Calvinistic doctrines in opposition to the Wes- 
leys, and preached and wrote with self-consuming zeal. He was minister 
of the chapel of the French Calvinists in Leicester Fields. The well- 
known beautiful hymn, — 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me/' 

was composed in Toplady 's last years, when he already felt that he was 
beginning to lose his hold on life, and that his feet were already standing 
on celestial altitudes. Some two years afterwards, when he was but 
thirty-eight years of age, the full time of his departure came, and he 
found the prayer in the last stanza of his hymn fully and sweetly answered 
in the revelation of divine love to his soul. 

While I draw this fleeting breath, 
TVTien mine eyelids close in death, 
When I soar to worlds unknown, 
See thee on thy judgment throne, 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee ! 

"Rock of Ages" has given Toplady a deeper and more vital place 
in millions of human hearts from generation to generation than almost 
any other hymnologist, not excepting Charles Wesley. Many of his 
hymns have been widely used, especially in America, and in the Evan- 
gelical hymn-books of the Church of England. The following may be 
found by their first lines: 



54 FAVORITE HYMNS 



"Inspirer and hearer of prayer;" 
"Your harps, ye trembling saints;" 
"Blow ye the trumpet, blow; " 
"Light of those whose dreary dwelling. 



Mrs. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825). 

Mrs. Anna L. Barbauld, daughter of the Rev. John Aikin, a dissent- 
ing minister, was born at Leicestershire in 1743. In 1774 Miss Aikin 
was married to the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, a descendant of a French 
Protestant family of Huguenot descent, and a dissenting minister. He 
died in 1808. Mrs. Barbauld resided in the neighborhood of Newington 
Green, where her husband died, until her death in 1825. She was one 
of the most distinguished female writers of her day within the British 
dominions. Theologically she belonged to the more evangelical class of 
English Lmitarians. As a writer of hymns Mrs. Barbauld was eminently 
successful. All of her hymns are still in common use, though the majority 
of them are confined to the Lmitarian hymnals of Great Britain and 

America. 

"Come, said Jesus' sacred voice, 

Come, and make my paths your choice; " 
and 

"Praise to God, immortal praise, 

For the love that crowns our days; " 

are the first lines of two of Mrs. Barbauld's most beautiful hymns. Sev- 
eral others will be found by their first lines as follows: — 

"How blest the righteous when he dies; " 
"Awake, my soul, lift up thine eyes;" 
"How blest the sacred tie that binds;" 
"Our country is Immanuel's ground." 

In the evening of her life, when past seventy, Mrs. Barbauld wrote 
the following exquisite ode to "Life": 

"Life! we've been long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear — 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear. 

Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time; 
Say not Good-night, — but in some brighter clime 

Bid me Good-morning." 

When at last "Life" greeted her with "Good-morning" in that 
"brighter clime," her own beautiful description of the death of the right- 
eous was doubtless fully realized: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 55 

Life's labor done, as sinks the clay, 

Light from its load the spirit flies; 
While heaven and earth combine to say, 

How blest the righteous when he dies. 

John Ryiand, D. D. (1753- 1825). 

. John Ryiand, son of a Baptist minister, was born at Warwick, Eng- 
land, in 1753. He became a preacher in his eighteenth year, and was 
associated with his father at Northampton both in teaching and preach- 
ing. He was distinguished as a minister and as President of the Baptist 
College at Bristol, a post he held together with the pastorate of a church 
in the same city. He was the author of many hymns. His favorite 
hymn: — 

O Lord, I would delight in Thee, 
And on thy care depend; 

is full of joyful trustfulness, and contains in one of its stanzas the fine 
thought that every creature good has its source in God: — 

No good in creatures can be found, 

But may be found in Thee; 
I must have all things, and abound, 

While God is good to me. 

Rev. Joseph Swain (1 761-1796). 

Joseph Swain was born in 1761. In 1792 he was ordained pastor 
of a Church in Walworth, where he remained until his death in 1796. 
He was author of the "Walworth Hymns," which appeared in 1792. 
His best known hymns in common use are the familiar one beginning: 

How sweet, how heavenly is the sight, 

When those who love the Lord 
In one another's peace delight, 

And so fulfill his word ! 

and another, containing in its first stanza, a brief epitome of the exper- 
ience of his consecrated life after his conversion: 

O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight, 

On whom in affliction I call, 
My comfort by day, and my song in the night, 

My hope, my salvation, my all ! 

Before his conversion he had written songs for plays and amuse- 
ment, and he knew whereof he wrote in his hymn: — 
"Come, ye souls by sin afflicted." 



56 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Miss Helen Maria Williams (1762-1827). 

Miss Helen Maria Williams, daughter of Charles Williams, an officer 
in the army, was born in the North of England in 1762. Being connected 
by her sister's marriage with a French Protestant family, she resided in 
Paris during the period of the Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Being 
a woman of strong convictions, and not lacking in the courage to express 
them, she became well-known as a writer of strong republican sympathies, 
and her independent opinions led to her temporary imprisonment by 
Robespierre. She was a woman of great ability, and was the authoress 
of several historical and political works, and two volumes of poems. Her 
"Letters from France" were published in England and America, and in 
a French translation, in France. The closing years of her life were 

spent in Amsterdam in the house of her nephew, who was pastor of the 
Reformed church there. Her death occurred in 1827. The steadfast- 
ness and serenity of her faith, and her cheerful resignation when "storms 
of sorrow" lowered are beautifully expressed in her well known hymn: — 

"While Thee I seek, protecting Power!" 
closing with the stanza: — 

When gladness wings the favored hour, 

Thy love my thoughts shall fill; 
Resigned, when storms of sorrow lower, 

My soul shall meet thy will. 
My lifted eye, without a tear, 

The gathering storm shall see; 
My steadfast heart shall know no fear — 

That heart will rest on Thee. 

Rev. Thomas Kelly (1 769-1 855). 

Thomas Kelly, son of Thomas Kelly, a Judge of the Irish Court of 
Common Pleas, was born in Dublin, July 3, 1769, and was educated at 
Trinity College, Dublin. He was designed and had studied for the Bar, 
but having undergone a very marked spiritual change through reading 
the works of Romaine, he took Holy Orders in 1792. His earnest evan- 
gelical preaching in Dublin led Archbishop Fowler to inhibit him and his 
companion preacher, Rowland Hill, from preaching in the diocese. For 
some time he preached in unconsecrated buildings in Dublin, and then, 
having seceded from the Established Church, he preached as an "Inde- 
pendent" in a chapel erected for him there; and being possessed of ample 
means, he built places of worship at Athy, Wexford, and other places, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 57 

in which he conducted divine worship and preached. He died May 14, 
1854, at the age of 88. Miller, in his "Singers and Songs of the Church," 
says, "Mr. Kelly was a man of great and varied learning, skilled in the 
Oriental tongues and an excellent Bible critic. He was possessed also 
of musical talent, and composed and published a work that was received 
with favor, consisting of music adapted to every form of metre in his 
hymn book. Naturally of an amiable disposition and thorough in his 
Christian piety, Mr. Kelly became the friend of good men, and the advo- 
cate of every worthy benevolent and religious cause. He was admired 
alike for his zeal and his humility, and his liberality found ample scope 
in Ireland, especially during the year of famine." His "Scripture Hymns " 
grew from a volume of ninety-six hymns as first published in 1804 to a 
collection of seven hundred and sixty-five in 1853 — all original. In the 
preface to the last edition of his hymns, Mr. Kelly gives this interesting 
and valuable testimony: 

"It will be perceived by those who may read these hymns, that 
though there is an interval between the first and the last of near sixty 
years, both speak of the same great truths, and in the same way. In 
the course of that long period, the author has seen much and heard much; 
but nothing that he has seen or heard has made the least change in his 
mind, that he is conscious of, as to the grand truths of the Gospel. What 
pacified the conscience then does so now. What gave hope then does 
so now. 'Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ.' " 

As a hymn- writer, Kelly was most successful. As a rule his char- 
acteristic strength appears in hymns of Praise and in metres not gen- 
erally adopted by the older hymn-writers. He preached the Gospel of 
"Him who died upon the cross" for more than three score years to the 
favored people who enjoyed his ministry, but his sermons are fading 
from the memory of his few survivors who heard them, while a vast and 
ever increasing multitude have joined with heart and voice in singing the 
rousing exhortations and notes of praise contained in his hymns. When 
at last the crowning time came for him, the glorious sight revealed to 
him as he wrote his most beautiful hymn, beginning: 

"Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious," 
was changed from a vision of faith to a glorious reality as the coronation 
scene described in the closing verse of this hymn broke upon his enrap- 
tured soul: 




James Montgomery. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 



Praise Kim Ever, 
Bounteous Giver; 
Praise Him, Father, Friend, and Lord, 
Each glad soul its free course winging, 
Each glad voice its free song singing : 
Praise the great and mighty Lord! 

John Stewart Blackie. 




James Montgomery (1771-1854). 

AMES Montgomery, son of John Montgomery, a Moravian 
minister, was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Nov. 4, 1771. 
The Moravians at this time believed God called them to 
plant missions in the parts of the world where white men 
could not expect their lives would long be spared — mis- 
sions to which in all probability, they would become martyrs. John 
Montgomery and his wife heard the call, and leaving their sons, James 
and Robert, at a Moravian school in Yorkshire, they went as missionaries 
to the West Indies. They soon found the martyrdom they were prepared 
to meet, and they sleep in unmarked graves in their chosen field of labor; 
but they did not trust their sons to Providence in vain. 

Secular poetry and fiction were banned at the Fulneck Seminary, 
but James, nevertheless, found means of borrowing and reading a good 
deal of poetry. While still a boy he began to write poetry, and planned 
two epics in the Miltonic mode. The Brethren, not satisfied with his 
diligence as a scholar, apprenticed him to a baker. He ran away from 
the shop and got a situation in a store at Wath, near Rotherham, only 
to find it quite as unsuitable to his tastes as his former position. A 
journey to London, with the hope of finding a publisher for his youthful 
poems ended in failure, and in 1792 he was glad to join Mr. Gales, an 
auctioneer, bookseller and printer of the "Sheffield Register," as his 



60 FAVORITE HYMN 8 



assistant. In 1794 Mr. Gales left England to avoid a political prosecu- 
tion, and Montgomery, becoming editor and proprietor of the paper, 
changed its name to the "Sheffield Iris," and continued to edit it for 
thirty-one years. Writing in days when party spirit ran high, he was 
twice imprisoned — once for reprinting a song in commemoration of the 
Fall of the Bastille, and again for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. 
The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems 
and hymns, the delivering of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and London, 
and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in 
many parts of the country gave great variety to his life, and ample op- 
portunities for the exercise of his gifted and consecrated powers. As a 
poet, Montgomery stands well to the front, and as a writer of hymns he 
ranks in popularity with Watts, Doddridge, Newton and Cowper. In the 
large number of his hymns that have passed into use and favor there is 
found a unity of thought, a clearness of utterance, a purity of style, a 
healthiness of religious tone, ranking them amongst the choicest treasures 
of the Church's song. He seemed conscious that his real success had 
been as a hymnist rather than a poet, and when asked once, "Which of 
your poems will live?" he replied, "None, sir, nothing except perhaps a 
few of my hymns." 

In the later years of his long and useful life he devoted much of his 
time to the promotion of religious and philanthropic movements. At the 
age of eighty-two, when the gates of the heavenly City seemed very near, 
with calm expectancy he could sing: 

My Father's house on high, 

Home of my soul, how near 
At times to faith's foreseeing eye 

Thy golden gates appear. 

He died in his sleep, at the Mount, Sheffield, April 20, 1854, and 
was honored with a public funeral. When he was borne to his grave a 
great city silenced its business, and the titled and the poor alike filled 
the streets with uncovered heads. The following stanzas of his hymn, 
"On the Death of an Aged Minister," who died suddenly of old age, de- 
scribe with equal aptness his own falling asleep, and his entrance through 
the gates into the City: 



Servant of God, well done ! 

Rest from thy loved employ; 
The battle fought, the vict'ry won, 

Enter thy Master's joy. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 61 

The voice at midnight came; 

He started up to hear; 
A mortal arrow pierced his frame; 

He fell, — but felt no fear. 

His spirit, with a bound, 

Left its encumb'ring clay; 
His tent, at sunrise, on the ground 

A darkened ruin lay. 

Soldier of Christ, well done! 

Praise be thy new employ; 
And while eternal ages run, 

Rest in thy Saviour's joy. 

Of Montgomery's 400 hymns (including his versions of the Psalms) 
a large number are still in common use. The spirit of his martyred par- 
ents rings with trumpet tones in his grand missionary hymns: 

Hark! the song of Jubilee, 

Loud as mighty thunders roar; 
Or the fullness of the sea, 

When it breaks upon the shore 

Hail to the Lord's anointed! 
Great David's greater Son; 

Daughter of Zion, from the dust 
Exalt thy fallen head; 
and 

"O Spirit of the living God." 
The familiar hymn : — 

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire 
Uttered or unexpressed," 

is an expanded definition of prayer of great beauty, and is considered the 
most popular of all Montgomery's hymns. The author said he received 
more expressions of appreciation of this hymn than of any other he ever 
wrote. Many others in the long list of his hymns find their best testi- 
monials in the comfort, courage, joy and renewed consecration they have 
inspired in the souls of millions, who, in the house of God have listened 
to his animating call : — 

Stand up, and bless the Lord, 

Ye people of his choice; 
Stand up, and bless the Lord your God, 

With heart and soul and voice; 

or to the gracious words of his more tender, sympathetic or pathetic 
hymns. 

Among his choicest hymns are the following : 



62 FAVORITE HYMXS 



"O where shall rest be found; " 
" According to thy gracious word;" 
"When on Sinai's top I see;" 
"People of the living God;" 
"Sow in the rnorn thy seed; " 
"Angels from the realms of glory;" 
"Friend after friend departs" 
"Who are these in bright array?" 

The hymn beginning: 

"Forever with the Lord! 
Amen, so let it be!" 

was a great favorite in Yorkshire, the county where it was written, being 
frequently quoted by dying Christians. At one of the sessions of the 
Methodist Conference at Leeds, England, this hymn was given out and 
sung, and such a depth of spiritual power fell upon the assembly during 
the singing of it that the Rev. James Everett, then past eighty years of 
age, fell prostrate in devout adoration. The audience, well knowing the 
long and affectionate friendship which had existed between the venerable 
man and the deceased but still revered poet, was powerfully moved by 
the touching spectacle. 

Miss Harriet Auber (1773-1862). 

Harriet Auber, daughter of James Auber, rector of Tring, was born 
in London, Oct. 4, 1773. During the greater part of her quiet and se- 
cluded life she resided at Broxburne and Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, 
and died at the latter place on the 20th of January, 1862, aged 89. Dur 
ing her long and useful life she wrote much poetry, only a part of which 
was ever published. She was editor of "The Spirit of the Psalms," a 
metrical version of the Psalter, in which the deservedly popular hymn 

beginning: 

Our blest Redeemer, ere he breathed 

His tender, last farewell, 
A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed 

With us to dwell, 

with others of hers, is found. This is one of the most beautiful hymns 
on "The Comforter" in the language. It has been translated into many 
languages, and is in use in all English speaking countries. Among Miss 
Auber's other hymns that have been in common use are the following: — 

"Vainly thro' night's weary hours;" 
"With joy we hail the sacred day;" 
"Sweet is the work, O Lord;" 
"Hail, all hail the joyful morn!" 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 63 

Rev. John Cawood, M. A. (1775-1852). 

John Cawood was born at Mallock, Derbyshire, England, March 18, 
1775. He graduated at Oxford in 1801. In 1814 he became "perpetual 
curate" in Bewdley, Worcestershire, remaining there until his death, 
November 7, 1852. Of his hymns about twenty have found place in 
various hymnals. The burden of his preaching and teaching during the 
thirty-eight years of his long ministry may be conjectured from the notes 
of praise, earnest appeals and the missionary spirit so beautifully ex- 
pressed in his hymn, beginning: 

Hark! what mean those holy voices, 
Sweetly sounding through the skies? 

Lo! th' angelic host rejoices, 
Heavenly alleluias rise; 

and an abundant fruitage of his labors was doubtless realized in answer 
to the prayer of his hymn, beginning : 

Almighty God, Thy word is cast 

Like seed into the ground; 
O may it grow in humble hearts, 

And righteous fruits abound. 



Rt. Rev. Richard Mant, M. A., D. D. (1776-1848). 

Richard Mant, the son of a clergyman of the English Church, was 
born at Southampton, England, in 1776. He graduated at Oxford in 
1801; entered the ministry of the English Church in 1810, and in 1820 
was consecrated Bishop of Killala, Ireland. He died in 1848. He was 
the author of numerous prose works and many hymns, also "The Book 
of Psalms in an English Metrical Version." His most popular hymns in 
common use are the one beginning in some hymnals with — 

"Round the Lord in glory seated;" 
and in others with the following verse: — 

Lord, thy glory fills the heaven, 

Earth is with its fullness stored; 
Unto thee be glory given, 

Holy, holy, holy Lord! 



his hymn: — 
and his Litany, 



For all thy saints, O Lord, 
Who strove in Thee to live; " 



"Son of God, to Thee I cry;" 
which is a fine example of that class of composition. 



64 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Thomas Moore (1779-1852). 

Thomas Moore, the noted Irish poet, was born in Dublin in 1779; 
graduated at Trinity college in his native city in 1798, and the following 
year began the study of law in London. From 1800 until his death in 
1852 he published many works in prose and poetry. His sacred songs 
were published in 1816, and again in his "Collected Works," in 1866. 
They numbered thirty-two in all, and were written to popular airs of 
various nations. He was a musician as well as a, poet, and often sang 
his own songs to the delight of the social circles among the great and 
noble, where he was ever a welcome and favored visitor. In literary 
and intellectual qualifications he was singularly and richly fitted for 
hymnic composition. He was deeply poetic; he had a wonderful com- 
mand of rhythm, and the music of his verse is charming. His hymns 
are among the sweetest, tenderest and most admired in our hymnals, 
but his life was not in tune with his hymns. If to their perfect mechan- 
ism he could have added the spiritual fervor which alone can move the 
soul to worship and praise, he might have been one of the greatest of 
sacred writers. He had not learned the secret which might have made 
him pre-eminent as a hymn writer. However, a few of his hymns are so 
excellent in all respects that they could not be spared from our collections. 
They have the ring of the true coin, and seem to bear the distinctive 
mark of sincerity. 

"Thou art, O God, the life and light 
Of all this wondrous world we see," 

with its exquisite poetry; 

O Thou who dri'st the mourner's tear, 

How dark this world would be, 
If, when deceived and wounded here, 

We could not turn to Thee! 

said to be "one of the sweetest, tenderest, most touching hymns ever 
written," and 

"Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish, 
Come to the mercy-seat, fervently kneel:" 

with its closing invitation — 

"Come to the feast of love, come, ever knowing, 
Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove;" 

will long hold their place as favorites. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 65 



Reginald Heber, D. D. (1783-1826). 

Reginald Heber was born at Malpas, England, April 21, 1783; edu- 
cated at Oxford, where he early took the prize for both Latin and English 
poems; ordained in 1807 and became vicar of Hodnet: was appointed 
Missionary Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, and died at Trichinopoly, India, 
April 3, 1826. 

' The gift of versification showed itself in Heber's childhood; and his 
prize poem entitled " Palestine" is one of the few poems that have won 
a permanent place in poetical literature. His sixteen years at Hodnet 
were marked not only by his devoted care of his people, as a parish priest, 
but by literary work. He was greatly beloved — "kneeling often at sick- 
beds at the risk of his life; where there was strife, the peace-maker; 
where there was want, the free giver." He was one of the most lovable 
of men — making friends easily — losing them only by death. Thackeray, 
in his "Four Georges," names Heber as type of the good divine. Scott, 
Milman, GirTord, Southey, and others, in the world of letters were his 
friends, endeared to him by his Christian graces, as well as his learning 
and culture. When he was forty years old, the literary life was closed 
by his appointment to the bishopric of Calcutta, with all India, Ceylon 
and Australia as diocese. No memory of Indian annals is holier than 
that of the three years of ceaseless travel, splendid administration, and 
saintly enthusiasm of his tenure of the see of Calcutta. He ordained 
the first Christian native — Christian David. At his last service, just be- 
fore his death, he confirmed forty-two persons. On his return from this 
service he retired to his own room, where a cold bath was destined to be 
the agent of his sudden removal to Paradise. 

Heber did much to encourage the free use of hymns in the Church 
of England. Before his time the Methodists and Independents had 
almost a monopoly of hymn singing. The lyric spirit of Scott and Byron 
is found in Heber's verse, imparting a fuller rhythm to the older measures, 
and aiming at consistent grace of literary expression. As pure and grace- 
ful devotional poetry, always true and reverent, they are unsurpassed. 
The greatest evidence of Heber's popularity as a hymn writer is found 
in the fact that all of his hymns are in actual use in Great Britain and 
America. 

"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!" 
is one of the noblest and most majestic odes ever addressed to the Divine 



66 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Being. It is said that Tennyson considered this hymn one of the finest 

ever written. The touching funeral hymn: — 

"Thou art gone to the grave; but we will not deplore thee," 

was composed after the death of his first child, a loss which he keenly 

felt, 

"Hosanna to the living Lord," 

is a most stirring hymn, inspired by Heber's own martyr-spirit. 

"The Son of God goes forth to war," 
is a glorious burst of praise. But the one hymn which would have given 
Heber a deathless name, if he had written no other, is his unequaled 
missionary hymn: 

"From Greenland's icy mountains." 

This hymn was first sung on Whitsunday, 1819. It was composed 

at Wrexham at the request of Heber's father-in-law, Dean of St. Asaph's 

Heber was to give a lecture on the Sunday evening, but the Dean was to 

preach at the missionary service to be held in the morning, in aid of the 

"Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." On the 

Saturday, being asked by his father-in-law to "write something for them 

to sing in the morning," he went to another part of the room and set to 

work. In a short time the Dean enquired, "What have you written?" 

Heber, having then composed the first three verses, read them over. 

"There, there; that will do very well," said the Dean. "No, no; the 

sense is not complete," replied Heber, and sitting down again, he added 

the fourth verse, "Waft, waft, ye winds, His story." This completed 

the hymn which has since become so celebrated. Only one correction 

appears in the manuscript, that of the word "savage" to "heathen." 

Heber gladly heard the call from "India's coral strand," when it 

came to him, and a noble company, in response to his clarion call to the 

Church, 

Salvation! O salvation! 

The joyful sound proclaim, 
Till earth's remotest nation 

Has learned Messiah's name, 

have been led to "follow in his train." 

Among Heber's other well-known hymns are the following: 

"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning;" 

"Lord of mercy and of might!" 

"By cool Siloam's shady rill;" 

"Bread of the world, in mercy broken;" 

"When thro' the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 67 

Bernard Barton (1784-1849). 

Bernard Barton was an English poet belonging to the unsinging 
body of the Society of Friends. He was a Quaker of a very catholic 
spirit, and a prolific writer of verse. Several of his hymns have been in 
common use, the best known being: 

Lamp of our feet whereby we trace 

Our path, when wont to stray; 
Stream from the fount of heav'nly grace, 

Brook by the traveller's way; 



and 



Walk in the light, so shalt thou know 

That fellowship of love 
His spirit only can bestow 

Who reigns in light above. 



Sir Robert Grant (1785-1838). 

Robert Grant was born in India in 1785. His father, a pious Scotch- 
man, was a leading officer in the East India Company. He graduated 
at Cambridge in 1804; was admitted to the bar in 1807, and filled various 
public official positions; was appointed Governor of Bombay in 1834, a 
post which he held until his death. He died in India in 1838. He is 
the author of twelve hymns, which his brother, Lord Glenelg, published 
after his death. From this small collection, three have deservedly ac- 
quired great popularity. Perhaps the finest is the jubilant hymn of 
praise, beginning: 

O worship the King, 

All glorious above; 
O gratefully sing 

His power and his love. 



His hymn; 



"Saviour, when in dust to Thee 
Low we bow the adoring knee; " 



is one of the finest hymns in the litany style in our language. The beauti- 
ful and pathetic hymn, beginning: 

When gathering clouds around I view, 
And days are dark and friends are few, 
On Him I lean, who not in vain 
Experienced every human pain; 



68 FAVORITE HYMNS 

is a brief summary of his own religious experience in times of temptation 
and trial, which has given renewed strength and fortitude to very many, 
who, in like circumstances of stress and trial have been comforted with 
the comfort wherewith he was comforted. The wish expressed in the 
last verse of this hymn was doubtless more than realized when he beheld 
the " realms of cloudless day." 

And ! when I have safely passed 

Through every conflict but the last: 
Still, still unchanging, watch beside 

My dying bed — for Thou hast died : 
Then point to realms of cloudless day, 

And wipe the latest tear away. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 



Speak, lips of mine, 

And tell abroad 
The praises of thy God. 

Speak, stammering tongue, 

In gladdest tone, 
Make His high praises known. 



HORATIUS BONAR. 



Henry Kirk White (1785-1806), 




ENRY Kirk White was born of poor but intelligent parents 
at Nottingham, England, in 1785. He early gave evi- 
dence of literary ability, and it is said that "at the age 
of fifteen he delivered an extempore lecture on genius 
to the Literary Society of Nottingham, speaking brilliantly 
for two hours and three quarters!" His first situation was in a stocking 
factory, but he escaped from this uncongenial servitude as soon as he 
could and began the study of law. He worked hard at law, but found 
time to study Latin, Creek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and some of 
the sciences as well. Through the influence of Henry Martyn and Charles 
Simeon he obtained a sizarship at Cambridge University. He was at 
one time a skeptic, but through the arguments and appeals of a faithful 
friend he became a devout Christian, and designed entering the ministry; 
but this purpose, as well as his literary work, was cut short by his untimely 
death in 1806, at the age of twenty-one, while he was yet at the University. 
His death is said to have been caused by his excessive devotion to mathe- 
matical study. The few poems which he left were of the highest order 
of merit, and gave promise of a brilliant career. He is best known as 
a hymn- writer by a fragment which was found on the back of his mathe- 
matical papers. This fragment was completed — quite in the spirit of 
the original — by Frances Fuller Maitland, who at that time was only 
fourteen years of age. Following is the first verse of this hymn: 



70 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Oft in sorrow, oft in woe, 
Onward, Christians, onward go; 
Fight the fight, maintain the strife, 
Strengthened with the bread of life. 

The familiar hymn : 

" VvTien marshaled on the nightly plain;" 

was written to commemorate his conversion; 

Charlotte Elliott (1789-1S71). 

Charlotte Elliott, daughter of Charles Elliott, and granddaughter 
of Rev. Henry Venn, author of "The Complete Duty of Man," and the 
beloved and talented co-laborer with Whitefield and the Wesleys, was 
born at Brighton, England, in 1789, and was reared among refined, Chris- 
tian suiToundings. She was well educated, and at quite an early age 
developed a passion for music and art. The first thirty-two years of her 
life were spent mostly in Clapham. In 1823 she removed to Brighton, 
and died there in 1871 , at the age of eighty-two. From her thirty-second 
year until her death she was a confirmed invalid, and oftentimes a great 
sufferer, but she had a strong will and a strong faith, which enabled her, 
in spite of bodily weakness, to do a great deal of work. To her acquaint- 
ance with Dr. Ceasar Malan, the great Genevan Evangelist, with whom 
she corresponded for forty years, is attributed much of the deep spiritual- 
mindedness which is so prominent in her hymns. Though weak and 
feeble in body she possessed a strong imagination and a well-cultured 
mind. She was "a lover of nature, a lover of souls, a lover of Christ.' ' 
The love of Christ which burned so brightly in her soul, she was 
privileged to kindle in many others by her beautiful hymns. 

She was one of the sweetest and most popular of lady hymnists. Her 
hymns number about 150, a large percentage of which are in common 
use. Her friend, Miss Havergal, said of her. "It is an honor from God 
to have had it given her to write what she has written." 

Most of her hymns were written for those in sorrow or sickness, but 
no one ever knew at what cost they were written. The effort and struggle 
by which her work was done is evident from such words as these: "My 
heavenly Father knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, hour 
after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weak- 
ness and languor and exhaustion, to resolve, as He enables me to do, not 
to yield to the slothfulness, the depression, the irritability such a body 
causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined on 




Charlotte Elliott. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 71 

taking this for my motto: 'If any man will come after me, let him deny 
himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.' " 

Having by such an experience been tried and tempted in all points 
like unto those for whom she wrote, she was prepared to write with such 
tenderness of feeling, plaintive simplicity, and deep devotion, that a 
great and ever increasing multitude have been comforted in all their 
affliction, and led in their hearts to say, "O Lamb of God, I come, I come! " 
by her hymns. 

The most widely known of all her hymns is: 

" Just as I am, without one plea." 

More than a thousand letters, it is said, were found in her reposi- 
tories after her death, giving thanks for light and blessing received from 
"Just as I am." The Rev. H. V. Elliott, brother of the authoress, said, 
with reference to this hymn : ' 1 In the course of a long ministry I hope I 
have been permitted to see some fruit of my labors, but I feel that far 
more has been done by a single hymn of my sister's." 

The following is but one of a large number of pathetic incidents 
indicating the value of this hymn in reaching the hearts of both sinners 
and believers : 

A poor little boy once came to a New York city missionary, and 
holding up a dirty and worn-out bit of printed paper, said: "Please, sir, 
father sent me to get a clean paper like that." Taking it from his hand, 
the missionary unfolded it, and found that it was a page containing the 
precious hymn: 

"Just as I am — without one plea." 
He looked down with deep interest into the face so earnestly upturned 
towards him, and asked the little boy where he got it, and why he wanted 
a clean one. "We found it, sir," said he, "in sister's pocket, after she 
died, and she used to sing it all the time she was sick, and she loved it 
so much that father wanted to get a clean one, and put it in a frame to 
hang it up. Won't you please to give us a clean one, sir?" 

Miss Elliott's hymn, beginning: 

My God, my Father, while I stray 
Far from my home, on life's rough way, 
O teach me from my heart to say 
Thy will be done! 

is a transcript of her own experience, and is considered the best of her 

hymns, giving the fruit of her own prolonged affliction for the consolation 

of other sufferers. 



72 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Very beautiful and helpful is the hymn beginning: 

Christian, seek not yet repose, 

Cast thy dreams of ease away; 
Thou art in the midst of foes : 

"Watch and pray. 

There are other hymns by Miss Elliott far less known, but showing 
the same high qualities. Amongst these are: — 

"O holy Saviour, Friend unseen;" • 
"My God, is any hour so sweet;" 
"Ever patient, gentle, meek;" 
"O Thou, the contrite sinner's friend;" 
"Jesus, my Saviour, look on me." 

Josiah Conder (i 789-1855). 

Josiah Conder was the son of Thomas Conder, a London Bookseller 
At the early age of twenty-one we find him, conjointly with several 
other aspirants for literary fame, issuing a volume of poetry called "The 
Associate Minstrels." In 1814 he obtained control of the "Eclectic 
Review," and from this time on he devoted all his time to literature and 
journalism. He was a man of great literary ability and untiring industry. 
His largest work was the "Modern Traveller," in thirty volumes — a 
marvellous achievement, considering that the author had never left his 
native shores. As a hymn- writer and editor of the hymns of other writers, 
Mr. Conder did a great deal to raise the standard of taste in hymnody. 
His "Congregational Hymn Book," published in 1836, obtained a wide- 
spread popularity which lasted for many years. To it he contributed 
fifty-six hymns from his own pen. He had the mastery of a considerable 
variety of style, and the general level of his hymns is high. His hymns 
and his numerous other works show him to have been a devout and pious 
believer. One of his most jubilant hymns is the familiar one beginning: 

The Lord is King! lift up thy voice, 
O earth, and all ye heavens, rejoice; 
From world to world the joy shall ring, 
The Lord omnipotent is King. 

The beautiful hymn : — 

"Day by day the manna fell," 

expresses his trustful confidence in God in his embarrassing pecuniary 

struggles as an author. 

Among his other excellent hymns in common use are : — 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 73 

"How shall I follow Him I serve?" 
"Bread of heaven, on Thee we feed;" 
"O holy, holy, holy Lord." 

James Edmeston (1791-1867). 

James Edmeston, a London architect, was a very large and worthy 

contributor to hymnody. He was the son of an independent minister, 

and was born in London in 1791. He was the author of two thousand 

hymns, many of which were written for the young. The best of his 

hymns were collected in a volume and published in 1847. The most 

popular is : 

"Saviour, breathe an evening blessing," 

which is everywhere accepted as one of the best evening hymns in the 
English language. It was written after reading "Salte's Travels in Abys- 
sinia," in which the following passage occurs: "At night, their short 
Evening Hymn, 'Jesus forgive us,' stole through the camp." 

Another of great merit, though not quite so familiar, expressing the 
author's faith in the loving care and guidance of the heavenly Father, is 
the hymn beginning: 

Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us 

O'er the world's tempestuous sea; 
Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us, 

For we have no help but Thee; 
Yet possessing every blessing, 

If our God our Father be. 

Among his other excellent hymns in common use are the following: — 

"As oft with worn and weary feet; " 
"Fountain of grace, rich, full, and free;" 
"Roll on, thou mighty ocean." 

After a long, most industrious and useful life, Edmeston died in 1867, 
having been sustained in life and in death by the faith and assurance 
expressed in a stanza of one of his hymns: — 

In life, Thy promises of aid 
Forbid my heart to be afraid; 
In death, peace gently veils the eyes; 
Christ rose, and I shall surely rise. 

Rev. Henry Hart Milman, D. D. (1791-1868). 

Henry Hart Milman, the learned and accomplished Dean of St. 
Paul's, was, like Edmeston, a large contributor to literature. He was 



74 FAVORITE HYMNS 



born in London in 1791. His father, Francis Milman, was physician to 
George III, and created Baronet by that king. 

While a student at Oxford he won the "Newdigate prize," for Eng- 
lish verse, by a poem on the "Apollo Belvidere," which was, according to 
Dean Stanley, "the most perfect of Oxford prize poems." Subsequently 
he wrote several dramatic pieces which Yv r ere very popular in their day, 
but his historical works held a much higher place, and exerted a deep 
and lasting influence upon the thought of the Church. He was Professor 
of Poetry in the University at Oxford from 1821 to 1831. His "Fall of 
Jerusalem" is one of his noted poems. But he is known by afar wider 
circle, at the present time, by his hymns than by his histories, or religious 
dramas. His hymns are chiefly in the litany form, and possess a degree 
of grandeur and pathos which makes them very impressive. 

During the many years spent in London — fourteen as rector of St. 
Margaret's, and from 1849 as Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral — Milman was 
much sought after for his social charm, admired for his learning and 
genius, and reverenced for his lofty Christian character; but his life was 
one of incessant toil, and it had its sorrows, also, three of his children 
lying in one grave in the north aisle of the Abbey. He survived in the 
full vigor of his mental powers until September 24, 1868, and was buried 
in the crypt of his vast cathedral. 

Of all Milman's contributions to hymnody, probably the best know 
and best loved is his litany, based on Christ's miracle at Nain, opening 
with the stanza: 

When our heads are bowed with woe, 
When our bitter tears o'erflow, 
When we mourn the lost, the dear, 
Jesus, Son of Mary hear! 

"Ride on, ride on in majesty," 

is a striking rendering of the story of our Lord's entry into the beloved 
but doomed city of Jerusalem. 

Ranking with the two already mentioned in excellence is his deeply 
devotional hymn, beginning: 

O help us, Lord; each hour of need 

Thy heavenly succor give; 
Help us in thought, and word, and deed, 

Each hour on earth we live. 

His hymn for the "Second Sunday in Advent," beginning: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 75 

"The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll in fire," 

is a vivid conception of the terrors and the glories of "The Last Day." 

His hymn on the crucifixion: — 

"Bound upon the accursed tree, 
Faint and bleeding, who is he?" 

rivals Charles Wesley's on the same subject. 

Rev. John Keble, M. A. (1792- 1S66). 

John Keble, author of the "Christian Year," was the son of a clergy- 
man of the same name belonging to the Church of England, and was born 
at Fairford, England, in 1792. He was prepared for college by his father, 
and was graduated from Oxford, while only eighteen, with double first- 
class honors, then counted a rare distinction. Among his earliest friends 
were Arnold of Rugby, Lord Coleridge, Pusey and Newman. He was so 
shy and unassuming that Cardinal Newman wrote of him, he was "more 
like an undergraduate than first man in Oxford." 

He was ordained to the full ministry in 1816, and took a country 
curacy in addition to his college duties as tutor and examiner. 

In 1831 he was elected Professor of Poetry, his lectures being delivered 
in Latin, as was the custom at that time. 

His mother's death in 1823 brought him home to Fairford, and there, 
with the exception of a year as curate of Hursley, he stayed as his father's 
helper as long as the latter lived. He was offered several appointments 
in the Church, which he declined, but on the death of his father he ac- 
cepted the vicarage of Hursley, offered him the second time by an old 
pupil. Here, in this "ideal village with an ideal vicarage" Keble spent 
the rest of his life, leading the life of a retired scholar and a faithful country 
pastor. 

In 1827 he published his well-known volume, "The Christian Year," 
ninety-six editions of which appeared before his death. This book is a 
volume of refined and lofty verse designed as a poetical companion to 
the English Prayer Book. 

Keble's other poetical works include "Lyra Innocentium: Thoughts 
in Verse on Christian Children, Their Ways and Their Privileges;" and 
also a complete metrical version of the Psalms. His works reflect in a 
remarkable degree the surroundings of the writer. Whether at home or 
at college, Keble had never come in contact with anything coarse, and as 



76 FAVORITE HYMNS 



might be expected from such a career, exquisitely delicate and refined 
thoughts, expressed in the most delicate and refined language, are char- 
acteristic of all his writings. 

Tender-hearted, gentle, and even playful in manner, Keble was none 
the less firm and decided in holding and advocating extreme High Church 
views. He gave himself very earnestly to forwarding the "Tractarian 
Movement of 1833," and wrote eight of the "Tracts for the Times." 
But, unlike his friend Newman, he saw his way clear to remain in the 
Church of England. Not the greatest of his own personal troubles dealt 
to him so severe a blow as the secession of his friend, J. H. Newman, to 
the Church of Rome. 

Keble wrote and edited a good deal, but undoubtedly the work as- 
sociated with his name is the "Christian Year." The success of this 
book was immediate and extraordinary. It is not a continuous poem, 
but a series of poems, one for each of the days and occasions for which 
services are provided in the Book of Common Prayer. These poems were 
not intended for singing, but for devotional reading, and yet a large num- 
ber of hymns have been taken from them. 

Keble's character, in his childlikeness, and purity, its devotional 
fervor and spirit of consecration, was in full and sweet accord with his 
poems. He lived as he sang, and his hymns are "brilliants that need no 
setting." 

On March 29, 1868, Keble entered upon the realization of his own 
prophetic verse: — 

Till death the weary spirit free, 
Thy God hath said 'tis good for thee 
To walk by faith, and not by sight : 

Take it on trust a little while; 
Soon shalt thou read the mystery right, 

In the full sunshine of His smile. 

His evening Hymn: 

"Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear," 
is known, not to thousands, but to millions, and the music of its verse 
is familiar throughout the English-speaking world. 

His Morning Hymn, which in some hymnals begins with: 
"O timely happy, timely wise," 

and in others with : 

"New every morning is the love," 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 77 

is, perhaps, equal in merit, but is not nearly so widely known as his Even- 
ing Hymn. One lover of this hymn has said, the sixth verse is the kernel 
of it:— 

The trivial round, the common task; 
Will furnish all we ought to ask; 
Room to deny ourselves; a road 
To bring us daily nearer God. 

In his fine hymn on the book of Nature, there is a beautiful inter- 
weaving of Nature and grace, the visible and invisible. The first verse 

follows : 

There is a book who runs may read, 

Which heavenly truth imparts; 

And all the lore its scholars need, 

Pure eyes and Christian hearts. 

Among Keble's other hymns in common use are the following: 

" Blest are the pure in heart; " 
"God the Lord a King remaineth; " 
"When God of old came down from heav'n;" 
"The voice that breathed o'er Eden." 



Sir John Bowring, L. L. D. (i 792-1872). 

Sir John Bowring, a distinguished English statesman, foreign minis- 
ter, and literary man, was born at Exeter, England, in 1792. He was a 
precocious youth, and possessed a remarkable genius in the acquisition 
of language. He made translations from no less than thirteen modern 
languages, mostly in poetry. He was elected to Parliament, appointed 
consul at Canton, made governor at Hong-Kong, and received the honor 
of knighthood. His original poetry was chiefly religious. His lyrics 
are charming, and his hymns are much admired. He was a Unitarian in 
faith, but in feeling, if not in doctrine, more allied to the Evangelical 
school. Though some of his poetry was distinctively Unitarian, several of 
his hymns are in common use by other denominations. Of these, the 
best known and most used in his noble hymn: 

"In the cross of Christ I glory." 

He died in 1872, at the age of eighty, and the first line of this hymn 
was inscribed upon his tombstone. 

"Watchman, tell us of the night," 

is one of the most popular of missionary hymns. 



78 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Among Bowring's other delightful hymns are the following: 

"God is love, his mercy brightens;" 
"How sweetly flowed the gospel sound; " 
"Lead us with thy gentle sway." 

Felicia Dorothea Hemans (i 793-1835). 

Mrs. Felicia Hemans, the poetess, was born in Liverpool, England, 
in 1793. She was a beautiful and gifted authoress, the friend of Word- 
sworth, Scott and Heber. Her life was one of untiring literary industry. 
She excelled as much in her linguistic skill as in her poetical productions. 
Being overcharged with cares and privations, her life was not a happy 
one, and a tone of sadness pervades most of her work. She ranks high 
among the lyric poets, but she did not write many hymns. 

"He knelt: the Saviour knelt and prayed," 
and 

"Lowly and solemn be 
Thy children's cry to Thee," 

are among the finest hymns of their order in the English language. Mrs. 
Hemans passed away in 1835, and her memorial in St. Ann's Church in 
Dublin has inscribed over her mortal remains these fitting stanzas from 
her own pen : — 

Calm on the bosom of thy God, 

Fair spirit, rest thee now! 
E'en while with us thy footsteps trod, 

His seal was on thy brow. 

Dust, to thy narrow house beneath ! 

Soul, to thy place on high! 
They that have seen thy look in death, 

No more may fear to die. 




Henry Francis Lyte. 



CHAPTER IX. 

XlXETEEXTH CENTURY. 



'Tis the old sorrow still, the brier and the thorn, 

And 'tis the same old solace yet, the hope of coming morn. 

HORATTUS BoXAXR. 



Rev. Henry Francis Lyte 5 M. A. (1973-1847) 




EXRY Francis Lyte was born June 1st, 1793, near Kelso, 
Scotland, but was the son of a captain in the English army. 
Both parents died while he was a child, and he had to 
struggle hard for the benefit of a liberal education. He 
graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1814, having 
distinguished himself by gaining three prizes for English poems. 
He began to study medicine, but in 1815 was ordained to the ministry 
in the Church of England. His first charge was in "a dreary Irish curacy" 
within seven miles from the town of Wexford. In 1817 he removed to 
Marazion, in Cornwall. There, in 1818, he underwent a great spiritual 
change, which shaped and influenced the whole of his after life, the im- 
mediate cause being the illness and death of a brother clergyman. From 
this time on he was a thoroughly evangelical and earnest minister. In 
1823 he was appointed perpetual curate of Lower Brixham, a fishing 
village on the Devonshire coast. Here, for twenty-four years, though 
far from robust, he labored devotedly as a minister of Christ, winning the 
deep love and reverence of his simple flock; here, too, he "made hymns 
for his little ones, and hymns for his hardy fishermen, and hymns for 
sufferers like himself." His arduous and self denying labors had super- 
induced consumption, and his strength gradually failed. The climate of 
Italy was several times tried, and his life prolonged for a little while. 
But the end must come. 

The autumn of 1847 was approaching, and he must needs take his 
last journey to the genial south. Before he went he wished once more 



80 FAVORITE HYMNS 



to preach to his people. His family tried to dissuade him, but he gently 
replied, "It is better to wear out than to rust out." He preached on the 
Holy Communion, "amid the breathless attention of his hearers," and 
assisted at the celebration of the Sacrament. He then retired with his 
soul in sweet repose on that Christ whom he had preached with his dying 
breath. As the evening drew on he handed to a near and dear relative 
those undying verses with his own adapted music for the hymn — 

"Abide with me: fast falls the eventide; 
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide!" 

The hymn, though not its accompanying music, has enshrined itself 
in the tenderest affections of the Church at large. It has been called 
his "Swan Song," for the reason that it seemed to be God's answer to 
the prayer expressed in the closing stanza of one of his poems : — 

O Thou! whose touch can lend 

Life to the dead, Thy quickening grace supply; 

And grant me, swan-like, my last breath to spend 
In song that may not die. 

The author of this deathless song lived to reach Nice, and there, on 
November 20, 1847, his spirit entered into rest. A simple marble cross 
in the English cemetery at Nice fitly marks the last resting-place of one 
whose highest honor and desire in active life had been to exalt "the Cross; 
who meekly bore the Cross through years of suffering, and who, trusting 
in the merits of his Blessed Saviour's Cross and Passion alone, calmly 
resigned his mortal life, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious im- 
mortality." 

Lyte's position as a hymn-writer is a very high one. 
"Jesus, I my Cross have taken," 

has been in the past even more used than "Abide with me." Among 
his other beautiful hymns in common use are the following: 

"Sing to the Lord our might; " 
"Praise the Lord, His glories show;" 
"There is a safe and secret place;" 
"Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;" 
"Praise, Lord, for Thee in Zion waits." 

The following item is from the Congregationalist, July 16, 1904: 
The Devonshire fishermen, loyal to the memory of Rev. Hemy Francis 
Lyte, who labored so long and lovingly among them, have given from 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 81 

their scanty earnings about $35,000 to build a church at Brixham. The 
$10,000 needed to complete the work have been promised by the society 
set of London, who are glad to join with the simple fishermen in honoring 
the author of 

" Abide with me: fast falls the eventide." 

Matthew Bridges (1800-1847). 

Matthew Bridges was born in Essex, and educated in the Church of 
England, but subsequently (1846) like John Henry Newman, and Fred- 
erick William Faber, he conformed to the Church of Rome. He pos- 
sessed a great lyrical gift, and wrote many hymns for the Church of his 
adoption which are said to be "spiritual and beautiful," but on account 
of their Roman Catholic and ritualistic characteristics, but few of his 
hymns are suitable for Protestant hymnals. He is the author of "Hymns 
of the Heart," and "The Passion of Jesus." From these two works his 
hymns in common use are taken. Following is the first stanza of one of 
his most popular hymns: 

Crown Him with many crowns, 

The Lamb upon His throne: 
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns 

All music but its own! 
Awake, my soul, and sing 

Of Him who died for thee; 
And hail Him as thy matchless King 

Through all eternity. 

Equally fine is his well-known hymn of faith and consecration, of 
which the first and last stanzas follow: 

My God, accept my heart this day, 

And make it always thine; 
That I from Thee no more may stray, 

No more from Thee decline. 

Let every thought, and work, and word, 

To Thee be ever given; 
Then life shall be thy service, Lord, 

And death the gate of heaven! 

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1894). 

John Henry Newman, the eldest son of John Newman, an English 
banker, was born February 21st, 1801. He was graduated from Trinity 
College in 1820; remaining there, first as a fellow, and then as a tutor, 
of Oriel. In 1824 he was ordained, and in 1828 was appointed vicar of 



82 FAVORITE HYMNS 



St. Mary's Church, at Oxford. Then he began to preach those sermons 
which exercised such an extraordinary influence over the young men of 
the University, and are thought by many the greatest of the century. 
There is evidence that in his early days he was strongly anti-Roman, 
but his opinions were gradually changed under those High Church in- 
fluences, which had their beginnings in Keble's "Christian Year," and the 
marked influence of his friend and fellow tutor, Hurrell Froude. As 
time went on, from being follower, he became leader in what is known as 
the "Oxford Movement" and initiated the famous series, culminating 
in Tract XC, which did so much to leaven the Church of England with 
High Church doctrine. He was the intellectual leader in the Movement, 
as Pusey was the spiritual, and Keble the poetical leader, but in the end 
he went farther than his partners in the movement were prepared to go, 
and in 1845 he seceded to the Church of Rome. In 1879 he was created 
a Cardinal, and thus received the highest dignity it is in the power of 
the Pope to bestow. 

His ministry in the Church of England lasted for twenty-one years, 
during fifteen of which he was vicar of St. Mary's and the central figure 
of Oxford. His preaching made a profound impression on the men of 
his time, partly on account of his fascinating style, but chiefly because 
of his moral and spiritual intensity. His prose works are numerous, 
"Parochial Sermons," especially, having been very popular. But he is 
known by a far larger circle by his hymn — 

"Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom." 

This hymn, which is one of the most popular in the English language, 
was written twelve years before Newman went into the Church of Rome; 
but the leaven that wrought the change in him was acting, and the con- 
dition of the Established Church at that time seemed to him so deplor- 
able, that he felt there was need of a second Reformation. His humble 
prayer for light and guidance "amid the encircling gloom" touches the 
heart, and expresses, more or less, the experience of many souls. Fer- 
vent Catholics, and Protestants of all denominations, have learned to 
love this hymn, which "contains piety and poetry in the highest propor- 
tion." When the Parliament of Religions met at Chicago, the represen- 
tatives of every creed known to man found two things on which they 
were agreed. They could all join in the Lord's Prayer, and they could all 
sing "Lead, kindly Light." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 83 

The hymn was written when the author was "far from home," be- 
calmed on the still waters of the Mediterranean Sea, on his way back to 
England after his first visit to Italy. During this journey he was laid up 
by illness for nearly three weeks. Having reached Palermo, he says, in 
his own account of it: "I was aching to get home; yet for want of a 
vessel I was kept at Palermo three weeks. I began to visit the Churches 
and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. 
. . . . At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. 
Then it was that I wrote the lines, 'Lead, kindly Light,' which have since 
become well known." In reply to a friend, who had ventured to say: 
"It must be a great pleasure to you to know that you have written a 
hymn treasured wherever English-speaking Christians are found," New- 
man said, "Yes, deeply thankful, and more than thankful;" then after a 
pause, "But you see it is not the hymn but the tune (Lux Benigna) that 
has gained the popularity. The tune is by Dykes, and Dykes was a great 
master." 

Another hymn of great force and beauty from Newman's pen, taken 
from his greatest poem, "The Dream of Gerontius," begins with the 
stanza : — 

Praise to the Holiest in the height, 

And in the depth be praise: 
In all his words most wonderful, 

Most sure in all his ways! 

Dr. Newman translated a number of hymns from the Latin Breviary, 
and they are models of what translations should be. His collection of 
poems, published in 1868 under the modest title — "Verses on Various 
Occasions," is said by Horder to be "one of the most beautiful and sug- 
gestive volumes of religious poetry in the language." 

The strange career of this wonderfully gifted man was closed by his 
death in 1890, at the age of eighty-nine. Besides the two hymns already 
mentioned, several translations from the Latin by Newman are in com- 
mon use in our hymnals. 

Rev. John Hampden Gurney, M. A. (1802-1862). 

John Hampden Gurney was for some time curate of Lutterworth, 
Wycliff's parish, and afterwards rector of St. Mary's, Marylebone, and 
Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral. A tablet in St. Mary's bears the 
following tribute to his memory: — 



84 FAVORITE HYMNS 



"A man of great gifts. Eloquent in speech and writing, fearless, large- 
hearted, open-handed. He bore a noble and consistent testimony not 
ending with death to the reality of things unseen and to the power of a 
disinterested devotion to the cause of God and man." 

While in Lutterworth, Mr. Gurney prepared a collection of hymns 
to which he contributed several which are in common use, and are de- 
servedly popular. His fine hymn, from which we quote the first and 
last two stanzas, is included in a large number of collections: 

Lord, as to Thy dear cross we flee, 

And plead to be forgiven, 
So let Thy life our pattern be, 

And form our souls for heaven. 

If joy shall at Thy bidding fly, 

And grief's dark day come on, 
We, in our turn, would meekly cry, 

Father, Thy will be done. 

Should friends misjudge, or foes defame, 

Or brethren faithless prove, 
Then, like Thine own, be all our aim 

To conquer them by love. 

The hymn of which the first stanza follows, is a striking example of 
Mr. Gurney's skill in adapting the compositions of previous hymnists: 

We saw Thee not when Thou didst come 

To this poor world of sin and death, 
Nor e'er beheld Thy cottage home 

In that despised Nazareth; 
But we believe Thy footsteps trod 

Its streets and plains, Thou son of God. 

His National hymn — 

"Great King of nations, hear our prayer," 
is a fine hymn for use in times of trouble or peril. 

James George Deck (1802-1883). 

James George Deck was educated for the army, and became an 
officer in the Indian service. Retiring from the army, and having joined 
the Plymouth Brethren, he undertook in 1843 the charge of a congrega- 
tion of that body at Wellington, Somerset, England. In 1852 he went 
abroad and settled in New Zealand. His hymns are marked by great 
earnestness, directness of aim, and simplicity of language. Although 
mainly on the Second Advent, there are several on other subjects of more 
than average merit. He is the author of the familiar hymn: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 85 

Jesus, Thy name I love, 
All other names above, 

Jesus, my Lord! 
Oh, Thou art all to me; 
Nothing to please I see, 
Nothing apart from Thee, 

Jesus, my Lord! 

. Very render and expressive of his own deep love, and adoration, is 
the hymn from which the following stanzas are quoted: 

Lord Jesus, are we one with Thee? 

O height, O depth of love! 
Thou one with us on Calvary, 

We one with Thee above. 

Ascended now, in glory bright, 

Still one with us Thou art; 
Nor life, nor death, nor depth, nor height, 

Thy saints and Thee can part. 

Oh, teach us, Lord, to know and own 

This wondrous mystery, 
That Thou with us art truly one, 

And we are one with Thee. 

Sarah Flower Adams (i 805-1 848). 

Sarah Flower Adams was born at Harlow, in Essex, England, on 
February 22nd, 1805. Her father was Benjamin Flower, an English 
author and editor of "The Cambridge Intelligencer," an influential weekly 
of radical principles. Accused of libelling the Bishop of Llandaff, whose 
political conduct he had censured, he was sentenced to six months im- 
prisonment in Newgate with a fine of £100. He was visited in prison by 
Miss Eliza Gould, who was able to sympathize with him on account of 
her own liberal principles, and shortly after his release he married her. 
Mrs. Flower died in 1810, when her daughter, Sarah, was but five years 
of age. Her older daughter, Eliza, was a skillful musician, with a re- 
markable gift for musical composition, and the two daughters, in later 
years, attracted to their Dalston home many friends who afterward be- 
came distinguished. Sarah Flower was a friend and correspondent of 
Robert Browning, who referred to her as "a very remarkable person," 
and Leigh Hunt called her "rare mistress of thought and tears." She 
seems to have made a deep impression upon the minds of those who 
knew her, by her personal charm, and her purity and highmindedness. 
In 1834 she was married to William Bridges Adams, a man of scientific 
and literary attainments. 



FAVORITE HYMNS 



Mrs. Adams had a considerable literary gift. She also had the 
dramatic instinct, and her most ambitious literary effort was "Vivia 
Perpetua," a dramatic poem of great beauty and intense feeling. She 
had, moreover, a real gift for lyrical poetry, and is chiefly remembered 
as the author of 

"Nearer, My God to Thee." 

This hymn was one of thirteen original hymns contributed by Mrs. Adams 
to a collection entitled "Hymns and Anthems," published in 1841 for 
the use of the Unitarian church of which Mrs. Adams was a member. 
Like most of Mrs. Adams' hymns it was set to music by her sister. It 
was not long in finding its way across the ocean, but a number of years 
passed before it was given a place in any of the orthodox Congregational 
hymnals. Not until 1856, when Lowell Mason wrote for it the tune of 
Bethany, did it start on its remarkable career in America as a universally 
accepted and admired leader among the hymns in use by all denomina- 
tions. It was the favorite hymn of the Prince of Wales, and it will ever be 
held sacred by the American people because of its association with the 
tragic death and the obsequies of President McKinley. The last words 
of the President were: "'Nearer, my God, to Thee, E'en though it be a 
cross,' has been my constant prayer." The universal grief in all English- 
speaking countries, where this hymn was sung in memory of the dead 
President, was fittingly expressed by this undying hymn. 

Eliza Flower died in 1847. Mrs. Adams never recovered from the 
shock of the separation, and in less than two years she also peacefully 
fell asleep. "Almost her last breath," it is stated, "passed away in un- 
conscious song." One of Mrs. Adams' most beautiful hymns was sung 
over her grave. Following are the first and last stanzas of this hymn: 

He sendeth sun, He sendeth shower; 
Alike they're needful for the flower; 
And joys and tears alike are sent 
To give the soul fit nourishment : 
As comes to me or cloud or sun, 
Father, Thy will, not mine, be done. 

ne'er will I at life repine! 
Enough that Thou hast made it mine; 
When falls the shadow cold of death, 

1 yet will sing with parting breath — 
As comes to me or shade or sun, 
Father, Thy will, not mine, be done. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 87 

Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, D. D. (1807-1885). 

The Duke of Wellington said in 1827 of Dr. Wordsworth, the Master 
of Trinity College, "I consider him to be the happiest man in the king- 
dom;" and being asked why, the Duke answered, "Because each of his 
three sons has this year got a university prize ! " Of the three, Christopher, 
the youngest, was born at Lambeth, England — of which parish his father 
was then rector — October 30, 1807. His career at Cambridge University 
was one of extraordinary distinction, and he remained for several years 
as Fellow of Trinity College and assistant tutor, and in 1836 was chosen 
Public Orator for the University. In the same year he was elected head- 
master of Harrow School. It was a trying position for a young man under 
thirty, but the fourteen strenuous and anxious years of his mastership 
there fitted him to enter upon a larger life with new acquirements of tact 
and forbearance. 

In 1844 he was appointed a Canon of Westminster Abbey, and in 
1869 Bishop of Lincoln, which office he held for more than fifteen years, 
resigning it a few months before his death, which took place on March 
20, 1885. 

He was a nephew of the poet Wordsworth, and one of England's 
greatest scholars. He was a very voluminous writer, his works including 
a Commentary on the whole Bible, many volumes of sermons, and an 
enormous amount of pamphlets, addresses, speeches, letters on almost 
every subject in which the interests of the church were concerned, and 
also on subjects connected with classical literature. 

From 1850 for nineteen years Canon Wordsworth was pastor of a 
country charge, which had the striking name of Stanford-in-the-Vale-cum 
Goosey. In this retired post he passed his time, except when on duty 
at the Abbey, as an exemplary parish priest, and here he accomplished 
a vast amount of scholarly work. 

Dr. Wordsworth is far less remarkable as a poet than as a hymnist. 
He seems to have discerned the large place which hymns would fill, and 
the deep influence they would exert in the Church. This is clear from 
"The Holy Year," published by him with a view to supply hymns for 
each and every occasion for which the Prayer Book provided services. 
Dr. Wordsworth, like the Wesleys, looked upon hymns as a valuable 
means of stamping permanently upon the memory the great doctrines of 
the Christian Church. And especially he insisted that the great office 



FAVORITE HYMNS 



and use of hymns was to set forth plainly and emphatically the teach- 
ings of the Scriptures and the Prayer-Book. 

By way of carrying out his views in hymnody Bishop Wordsworth 
prepared "The Holy Year," and published it in 1862. For this book he 
wrote one hundred and seventeen original hymns, and for a later edition 
ten more. Many of these hymns are excellent from any point of view, 
but Keble had already done a similar work for the Church by his " Chris- 
tian Year" — and Keble was the greater poet. For this reason it cannot 
be said that the "The Holy Year" in its entirety ever won much favor. 
When Dr. Wordsworth had a good subject for his verse, his hymns are 
of the highest order; when a place in the Church Year had to be filled 
for which no trustworthy information could be found, his verse becomes 
prosaic simply from lack of material. "He could not make bricks with- 
out straw." Where he is free from such trammels, he often rises to a 
great elevation of style and thought. The familiar hymn, 

O Day of Rest and gladness, 

O day of joy and light, 
O balm of care and sadness, 

Most beautiful, most bright. 

was number one in "The Holy Year," appearing under the head of Sun- 
day, and it certainly was a real inspiration. It is now in general use in 
all the churches, and is considered one of the finest of the many hymns 
on the Sabbath. The following reminiscence describes the way in which 
this famous Irymn was started on its career of usefulness. A friend of 
the Bishop writes: "I was with him in the library when he put his arm 
in mine, saying, 'Come up-stairs with me; the ladies are going to sing a 
hymn to encourage your labors for God's holy day.' We all then sang 
from the manuscript this hymn. I was in raptures with it. It was some 
days before I knew it was written by himself." 
His almsgiving hymn beginning: 

O Lord of heaven and earth and sea, 
To Thee all praise and glory be; 
How shall we show our love to Thee, 
Who givest all? 

is one of the best hymns we possess on that subject. 

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost, 
Taught by Thee, we covet most 
Of Thy gifts at Pentecost, 
Holy, heavenly love. 

is a lovely lyric paraphrase of I Cor. XIII. A grand outburst of song 

concerning the great multitude of the redeemed in heaven, is — 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 



"Hark the sound of holy voices 
Chanting at the crystal sea." 

His evening hymn beginning: 

"The day is gently sinking to a close, 

Fainter and yet more faint the sunlight glows :" 

is one of great tenderness and beauty. Among his other hymns in com- 
mon use are : 

"Alleluia! Alleluia!" 
"Songs of thankfulness and praise;" 
"See the Conqueror mounts in triumph;" 
"Arm these Thy soldiers, mighty Lord;" 
"Father of all, from land and sea." 



CHAPTER X. 

Nineteenth Century. 



To Thee, whose temple is all space, 

Whose altar, earth, sea, skies, 
One chorus let all being raise, 

All Nature's incense rise. 

Alexander Pope. 




George Rawson (1807-1889). 

EORGE Rawson was born June 5, 1807, at Leeds, England, 
in which town he practiced for many years as a solicitor. 
He was a member of the Congregational body. He gave 
much of his leisure to the study of Hymnology. In 1853 
he assisted the Congregational ministers of Leeds in the 
compilation of what is commonly known as the "Leeds Hymn Book." 
In 1877, all the hymns he had then written were collected and published 
under the title, "Hymns, Verses, and Chants." This collection contained 
eighty original pieces, exclusive of chants. In 1885 most of these, with 
additional hymns, were published under the title, "Songs of Spiritual 
Thought." He is represented by about fifty hymns in the collections 
of the present day. His hymns are characterized by diversity of style, 
refinement of thought and delicacy and refinement of language, and many 
of them are of great excellence. 

His beautiful hymn, beginning, 

In the dark and cloudy day, 

When earth's riches flee away, 
And the last hope will not stay, 

My Saviour, Comfort me. 

has brought repose to many souls, "desolate, bereft, alone," who have 
found comfort and assurance in the thought of the closing stanza: 

So it will be good for me 

Much afflicted now to be, 
If Thou wilt but tenderly, 

My Saviour, comfort me. 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 91 

Perhaps Mr. Rawson's best known hymn is his Litany to the Comforter, 
beginning, 

Come to our poor nature's night, 
With Thy blessed inward light, 
Holy Ghost, the infinite; 
Comforter Divine. 

Rev. Edward Arthur Dayman, M. A. (1807-1890). 

Edward Arthur Dayman was an English clergyman, who held several 
important appointments as educator and rector. He was joint editor 
with Lord Nelson and Canon (afterwards Bishop) Woodford of the "Sarum 
Hymnal," 1868, which contains translations from the Latin and original 
hymns by him. 

The following stanzas are from his beautiful hymn for those at sea : 

O Lord, be with us when we sail 

Upon the lonely deep, 
Our guard, when on the silent deck 

The nightly watch we keep. 

We need not fear, though all around, 

Mid rising winds, we hear 
The multitude of waters surge; 

For Thou, O God, art near. 

The calm, the breeze, the gale, the storm, 

The ocean and the land, 
All, all are Thine, and held within 

The hollow of Thy hand. 

Across this troubled tide of life 

Thyself our pilot be, 
Until we reach that better land, 

The land that knows no sea. 

There is also a fine "Almsgiving" hymn from his pen, beginning: 

Almighty Father, heaven and earth 

With lavish wealth before Thee bow; 
Those treasures owe to Thee their birth, 

Creator, ruler, giver, Thou. 

[Richard Chenevix Trench, D. D. (1807-1886). 

R : chard Chenevix Trench, an English clergyman, theological professor 
at King's College, London, Dean of Westminster and Archbishop of 
Dublin, is the author of several works which have been widely read. He 
was an eminently interesting writer, and was held in the highest regard 



92 FAVORITE HYMNS 



by all the people among whom he labored. It has been said of him, 
"Few have left behind them a more stainless, a more lovable, a more 
enviable memory. He was sweetness and light embodied." He has 
found a place among the hymnists by reason of the adaptation of certain 
of his poems as hymns. These versions are characterized by largeness 
of view, tenderness of thought and beauty of expression, and well deserve 
the place they have obtained in public worship. The following hymn is 
a rendering of his beautiful little poem on "The Law of Love." 

Make channels for the streams of love, 

Where they may broadly run; 
And love has overflowing founts, 

To fill them every one. 

But if, at any time, we cease 

Such channels to provide, 
The very founts of love for us 

Will soon be parched and dried. 

For we must share, if we would keep, 

That blessing from above: 
Ceasing to give we cease to have, — 

Such is the law of love. 

Andrew Young (1807 -1889). 

Thus far, in the august assembly of hymn-writers whose lives and 
works have besn considered in this series, no children's hymns have been 
included. But the writer has now decided to depart from the usual 
custom of assigning the Children's hymns to a separate department. 
This plan seems too much like confining the children in the nursery, when 
the charm and cheer of their bright faces and happy voices are so greatly 
needed by the other members of the family. 

Among all the beautiful hymns that have been written for children, 
for many years there has been no greater favorite than the sweet and 
simple hymn of Andrew Young: 

There is a happy land, 

Far, far away, 
Where saints in glory stand, 

Bright, bright as day. 

Who, among those who are no longer children in years, are not trans- 
ported by these simple words to the days of their childhood, when, in 
Sunday school, they sang the words of this song to the "sweet and tender 
air" of the tune which first suggested the words to Mr. Young? 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 93 

"Its simple strains are among the first that infant voices learn to 
lisp, and they are often among the last whispered by dying saints." It 
was one of the "bairns' " hymns that Dr. Guthrie asked to have sung to 
him on his death bed. 

Mr. Young, in the Preface to his "Poems," gives the following account 
of its origin: "Many years ago, I was spending an evening with a family 
of friends, and the lady of the house played several musical compositions 
of great beauty. Among these was a sweet and tender air which charmed 
me exceedingly. On asking the name of it, I was told it was an Indian 
air called 'Happy Land.' It immediately occurred to me that such a 
melody could not fail to be popular in Sunday Schools, if wedded to 
appropriate words. And, accordingly, I wrote the little hymn, which 
has since spread all over the world, and been translated into almost ail 
languages." 

Numerous tributes to this hymn have been recorded. Professor 
Mason is authority for the following: "The novelist, Thackeray, was 
walking one day in a slum district of London when he suddenly came 
upon a band of gutter children sitting on the pavement. They were 
singing. Drawing nearer he heard the words, 'There is a happy land, 
Far, far away.' As he looked at the ragged choristers and their squalid 
surroundings, and saw that their pale faces were lit up with a thought 
which brought both forgetfulness and hope, the tender-hearted cynic 
burst into tears." 

Andrew Young was for more than fifty years an efficient teacher in 
Edinburgh. After passing through a distinguished eight years' literary 
and theological course at the University of Edinburgh, he was appointed 
in 1830 Head Master of Niddry Street School, Edinburgh, where he began 
with eighty pupils, and left with the total at six hundred. In 1840 he 
became Head English Master of Madras College, St. Andrews, where he 
was equally successful. Mr. Young's poems entitle him to rank in the 
first order of Scottish minor poets. But it is probable that his name 
and fame would not have extended beyond the confines of his own country, 
but for his one simple hymn — "There is a Happy Land." 

Dr. E. C. Brewer. 

Another illustration of the elusive and capricious nature of Fame, 
which is often unconsciously achieved by a single stroke, after years of 



94 FAVORITE HYMNS 



strenuous but unsuccessful efforts to obtain the coveted recognition, is 
found in the story of another very pleasing and popular hymn for children. 
The name of Dr. E. C. Brewer is enrolled among the hymnists by 
reason of a short poem on "The Importance of Little Things," which 
has been so altered by the editors of hymnals that the original thought 
and the first stanza are all that remain of the poem as first written. Yet 
this little poem has secured to its author an audience and popularity 
among millions of English speaking people. Who does not remember 
the lesson of his childhood which he learned through the simple words 
of the hymn, containing the following stanzas? 

Little drops of water, 

Little grains of sand, 
Make the mighty ocean, 

And the beauteous land. 

Little deeds of kindness, 

Little words of love, 
Make our earth an Eden, 

Like the heaven above. 

The fact that Dr. Brewer wrote the original form of this hymn appears 
to be the only thing recorded concerning him by hymnologists. 

Rev. Horatius Bonar, D. D. (1808-1889). 

Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh, Dec. 19, 1808, and educated 
at the High School and University of Edinburgh. He was ordained min- 
ister of the North Parish, Kelso, in 1837, but left the Established Church 
at the "Disruption" in 1843, remaining in Kelso as a minister of the 
Free Church of Scotland. For fifty years he devoted himself to his clerical 
duties with such ardor and enthusiasm that "one said of him that he was 
'always visiting,' another that he was 'always preaching,' another that 
he was 'always writing,' another that he was 'always praying.'" Like 
Neale, and Keble, and Doddridge, he was pre-eminently a man of prayer, 
the voice of earnest pleading in his study, continued for hours, forming 
one of the most sacred memories of his home circle. His last pastoral 
charge was in Edinburgh, where he died in 1889, in his 81st year. His 
old age was crowned with the venefation and love of a multitude of Chris- 
tians, including many outside the pale of his own Church and country. 

He was one of the heroic band of noted divines who left the State 
Church and established the Free Church of Scotland. It is to be regretted 
that there is no memoir of a personality of so rare a type and one who 




HORATIUS BONAR. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 95 



lived through such stirring times, but, in accordance with his own express 
directions, a veil of reserve is drawn over much of his life. He wished 
that his works might be his only memorial, and he is indeed "remembered," 
as he hoped to be — 

"Yes, — but remembered by what I have done." 

He was an eager student of Hymnology, and one of the most popular 
hymn writers of the nineteenth century. His pen was his confidante, 
voicing his plaintive notes "when sadness like a cloud begirt his way; 
the harp whose strings gave out his gladness when burst the sunshine of 
a happier day." So much was his poetry a part of himself that his daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Dodds, was able to write an excellent article on Dr. Bonar, in 
1897, which deals with his poetry autobiographically. 

Dr. Bonar' s hymns and poems were composed under a great variety 
of circumstances. His poems include many beautiful lyrics, several psalm 
versions, and translations from the Greek and Latin, a large number of 
hymns and a long meditative poem. Dr. Bonar's scholarship was thor- 
ough and extensive. His hymns satisfy the fastidious by their instinc- 
tive good taste; they mirror the life of Christ in the soul; they win the 
heart by their tone of tender sympathy; they sing the truth of God in 
ringing notes, and they reflect with singular clearness the author's own 
spiritual life. In Great Britain and America nearly one hundred of Dr. 
Bonar's hymns are in common use. They are found in almost all modern 
hymnals. 

If a sketch of Dr. Bonar's life were to be compiled from his own 
works, it might aptly begin with the following verse from one of his poems — 

I thank Thee for a holy ancestry, 
I bless Thee for a godly parentage; 

For seeds of truth and light and purity, 
Sown in this heart from childhood's earliest age. 

It was for his Sunday school that he first began to write hymns, one 
of his earliest being: 

I lay my sins on Jesus, 
The spotless Lamb of God. 

This hymn, though perfectly simple in diction, expresses the deep need 
of the soul, and the child-like love and faith of one who has found the 
only remedy for sin and been washed 



'White in his blood most precious 
Till not a stain remains." 



96 FAVORITE HYMNS 



The same truth is expressed in his beautiful rendering of the parable 
of the lost sheep: 

I was a wandering sheep, 
I did not love the fold. 

It is a remarkable fact that, although Dr. Bonar belonged to a strongly 
Calvinistic body, his hymns abound in the most rapturous assertions of 
the universal love of God. An illustration of this is found in his hymn 
beginning: 

love of God, how strong and true ! 
Eternal, and yet ever new, 
Uncomprehended and unbought, 
Beyond all knowledge and all thought. 

Perhaps the most popular of Dr. Bonar's hymns is the one in which 
he recites his own luminous experience for the encouragement of those 
who have not found "this dark world's Light," beginning, 

1 heard the voice of Jesus say, 

Come unto me and rest; 

and ending with the joyous testimony: 

I looked to Jesus, and I found 

In Him my Star, my Sun; 
And in that light of life I'll walk, 

Till travelling days are done. 

Dr. Bonar's own favorite among his hymns is said to have been the 
one modelled upon the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of tlie temple, 
beginning : 

When the weary, seeking rest, 

To thy goodness flee; 
When the heavy-laden cast 

All their load on thee; 

and each of the stanzas closing with the petition: 

Hear then in love, O Lord, the cry, 
In heaven thy dwelling-place on high. 

Following are the first, third and fourth stanzas of one of his most 
beautiful and helpful hymns, in spirit and form reminding us of the famous 
hymn of his English contemporary, Dr. J. H. Newman: 

Thy way, not mine, O Lord, 

However dark it be; 
Lead me by Thine own hand, 

Choose out the path for me. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 97 



I dare not choose my lot; 

I would not if I might : 
Choose thou for me, my God, 

So shall I walk aright. 

The kingdom that I seek 

Is Thine; so let the way 
That leads to it be Thine, 

Else I must surely stray. 

Among Dr. Bonar's other inspiring hymns of faith and hope in com- 
mon use are: — 

"Go, labor on, spend and be spent;" 
"Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;" 
"Blessed night, when Bethlehem's plain;" 
"Yes, for me, for me He careth;" 
"Upward where the stars are burning;" 
"He has come! the Christ of God;" 
"Come, Lord, and tarry not." 

Mrs. Elizabeth Earrett Browning (1809-1861). 

Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, daughter of an English gentleman, 
and wife of Robert Browning, the poet, was born in London, 1809. As a 
poetess she stands at the head of English female writers, and for pure 
poetic genius, many would rank her second only to her great husband, 
and Tennyson. Mrs. Browning's religious poetry abounds with noble 
ideas, splendid metaphors and high aspirations expressed with masterly 
power. She was almost constantly an invalid, — "a soul of fire in a shell 
of pearl' ' — yet from her couch of suffering went forth those earnest, 
scholarly, artistic poems which have won for her such pre-eminent fame. 
In her weakness she bravely solved the problem of this earthly life, as 
follows : 

What are we set on earth for? Say to toil! 
Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines 
For all the heat o'the sun, till it declines, 
And death's mild curfew shall from work assoil. 
God did anoint thee with His odorous oil 
To wrestle, not to reign; and he assigns 
All thy tears, ever like pure crystallines, 
Unto thy fellows, working the same soil, 
To wear for amulets. 

Mrs. Browning left many precious "amulets" for the inspiration 
and comfort of the great company whose lot it is to toil and wrestle till 
the "sun declines;" and when in the midsummer of 1861, "death's mild 
curfew" struck the hour for her to retire from the scenes of earth, she 
joyfully received the gift which to her weary soul was far more to be 



98 FAVORITE HYMNS 



desired than the " dreary noise" of earthly honors and strife, — the " happy 

slumber" when 

"God makes a silence through them all, 
'And giveth his beloved sleep.' " 

Her "sacred dust" sleeps in the English burying ground under the 
blue sky of Florence, and visitors to that poet-shrine have ever associated 
it with her plaintive and prophetic words, — 

And friends, dear friends! when it shall be, 
That this low breath is gone from me — 
When round my bier ye come to weep; 
Let one, most loving of you all, 
Say — "Not a tear must o'er her fall, — 
He giveth His beloved sleep.' " 

The well-known hymn, beginning: 

Of all the thoughts of God, that are 
Borne inward unto souls afar, 

Along the Psalmist's music deep — 
Now tell me if there any is, 
For gift or grace surpassing this — 
"He giveth His beloved sleep?" 

was sung at Robert Browning's funeral in Westminster Abbey. 

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). 

Alfred Tennyson, who succeeded Dr. Christopher Wordsworth as 
poet-laureate of England, is so well known as to render any but a brief 
mention unnecessary. He was born in 1809, at Somersby, a Lincolnshire 
village of which his father was the rector. Even as a child he began to 
make verses, and while he was an undergraduate at Cambridge his first 
volume of verse appeared. 

When only twenty-one, Tennyson published his "Poems, Chiefly 
Lyrical." This book marks the beginning of a great poetic career of 
more than sixty years, that in its circumstances and influence is almost 
ideal. Tennyson will no doubt always stand as the representative poet 
of Queen Victoria's reign. 

He had a deeply religious nature, and regarded himself as intrusted 
with a divine message. He was a humble believer in Christ. "What 
the sun is to that flower, that," he once said, "Jesus Christ is to my soul." 
Indeed he lived and wrought always as in the sunshine of the divine presence 

The credit of introducing Tennyson's beautiful lyric entitled "Cross 
ing the Bar" as a hymn in this country belongs to the Presbyterians, 
who included it in "The Hymnal" of 1895. In a few years it became 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 99 

well known as one of the most popular and perfect gems in the hymnody 
of the Church. 

In the memoir of Lord Tennyson, written by his son, the story of 
this hymn is briefly given as follows: — "Crossing the Bar" was written 
in my father's eighty-first year, on a day in October when we came from 
Aldworth to Farringford. Before reaching Farringford he had the moan- 
ing of the bar in his mind, and after dinner he showed me this poem writ- 
ten out. I said, "that is the crown of your life's work." He answered, 
"it came in a moment." He explained the "Pilot" is that Divine and 
Unseen who is always guiding us. A few days before my father's death 
he said to me: "Mind you put 'Crossing the Bar' at the end of all editions 
of my poems." In accordance with his own request, this "swan song" 
of the great poet has indeed become the end and crown of his life's work. 
Following are the first, third and fourth stanzas of the hymn: 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me ! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to sea. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark; 

For, though from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crost the bar. 

On October 6th, 1892, his hope to see his life-long "Pilot face to face' ' 
was realized. 

The first public use of the poem was as an anthem at Lord Tenny- 
son's funeral in Westminster Abbey. The daughter of the dean of West- 
minster has beautifully described the impressive scene: — 

"As the procession slowly passed up the nave and paused beneath 
the lantern, where the coffin was placed during the first part of the burial 
service, the sun lit up the dark scene, and touched the red and blue Union 
Jack upon the coffin with brilliant light, filtering through the painted 
panes of Chaucer's window on to the cleared purple space by the open 
grave, and fighting up the beautiful bust of Dryden, the massive head of 
Longfellow, the gray tomb of Chaucer and the innumerable wreaths 
heaped upon it. In the intense and solemn silence which followed the 
reading of the lesson were heard the voices of the choir singing in subdued 



100 FAVORITE HYMNS 



and tender tones Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" — those beautiful words 
in which the poet, as it were, prophetically foretold his calm and peaceful 
deathbed. In the second line — 'and one clear call for me' — thrilling 
notes of a boy's voice sounded like a silver trumpet call amongst the 
arches, and it was only at intervals that one distinguished Dr. Bridge's 
beautiful organ accompaniment, which swelled gradually from a subdued 
murmur as of the morning tide into a triumphant burst from the voices, 
so blended together were words and music." 

Tennyson wrote nothing designed for a hymn, although some verses 
from the prologue of "In Memoriam," beginning: 

"Strong Son of God, immortal Love," 

and a song found in his poem, entitled "Guinevere," in the "Idyls of the 
King," beginning: 

"Late, late, so late! and dark the night, and chill," 

have been adopted as hymns. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Nineteenth Century. 



Dear Christian people, all rejoice, 

Each soul with joy upspringing; 
Pour forth one song with heart and voice, 

With love and gladness singing. 
Give thanks to God, our Lord above, 
Thanks for His miracle of love ! 

Dearly he hath redeemed us! 

Martin Luther. 



Mrs. Jane Crewdson (1809-1863). 

RS. Jane Crewdson, daughter of George Fox, of Perraw, 
Cornwall, England, is the author of nearly a dozen hymns 
that have come into common use. They were taken 
from her poems, written during a long illness, and they 
are bright with the "exceeding weight of glory" which 
the afflictions of this life work for those who bear them in the spirit which 
breathes through her poems. The following beautiful lines reveal the 
secret by which she received such "A blessing in its fullness, when buds 
of promise fail:" 

I've found a joy in sorrow, a secret balm for pain, 

A beautiful to-morrow, of sunshine after rain; 

I've found a branch of healing near every bitter spring; 

A whispered promise stealing o'er every broken string; 

I've found a glad hosanna for every woe and wail, 

A handful of sweet manna, when grapes from Eshcol fail; 

I've found a "Rock of Ages" when desert wells were dry, 

And, after weary stages, I've found an Elim nigh. 

My Saviour! Thee possessing, I have the joy, the balm, 
The healing and the blessing, the sunshine and the psalm; 
The promise for the fearful, the Elim for the faint, 
The rainbow for the tearful, the glory for the saint. 

Following are the first two stanzas of one of her hymns: 



102 FAVORITE HYMNS 



There is no sorrow, Lord, too light 

To bring in prayer to Thee; 
There is no anxious care too slight 

To wake thy sympathy. 

Thou who hast trod the thorny road 

Wilt share each small distress; 
The love which bore the greater load 

Will not refuse the less. 

The grace which enabled the writer to "Bless the Lord at all times" 
animates her hymn of praise, from which the following stanzas are quoted : 

Thou, whose bounty fills my cup 
With every blessing meet ! 

1 give Thee thanks for every drop — 
The bitter and the sweet. 

I praise Thee for the desert road, 

And for the river side; 
For all Thy goodness hath bestowed, 

And all Thy grace denied. 

I thank Thee for both smile and frown, 

And for the gain and loss; 
I praise Thee for the future crown, 

And for the present cross. 

I bless Thee for the glad increase, 

And for the waning joy; 
And for this strange, this settled peace, 

Which nothing can destroy. 



Rev. Henry Alford, D. D. (1810-1871). 

Henry Alford was the son of an Episcopal clergyman, and was born 
in London in 1810. He was educated at Cambridge, and entered the 
ministry of the Church of England. He was appointed Dean of Canter- 
bury in 1857, which office he held until his death in 1871. 

He is best known as the author of a critical commentary on the 
Greek Testament, which to the last generation was the standard for 
English readers. He commenced writing at a very early age, and had 
an extraordinary capacity for literary work. He was a man of wide 
sympathies, a member of the Evangelical Alliance, and maintained cor- 
dial relations with the Non-conformists of England during all his career. 
He did all his work in a devout and prayerful spirit, and at the close of 
a hard day's study would "stand up as at the end of a meal and thank 
God for what he had received." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 103 

Dean Alford was deeply interested in Hymnology, and compiled 
several hymn-books, for which he wrote and translated many hymns. 
Of these, three, of his own composition, are among the most popular in 
our hymnals. His hymn, beginning: 

Come, ye thankful people, come, 
Raise the song of Harvest-home; 

is said by Horder — the critical author of the "Hymn Lover" — to be 
"probably the most popular Harvest Hymn now in existence, and is 
sung at the great majority of harvest festivals." His Processional Hymn, 

Forward ! be our watchword, 
Steps and voices joined; 

is a universal favorite, and when sung to Sir Arthur Sullivan's tune is 
singularly inspiring. The original of this hymn contains eight stanzas. 
It was written to be sung at the Tenth Festival of Parochial Choirs of 
the Canterbury Diocesan Union, June 6, 1871; but the author had joined 
"the choir invisible" before that date arrived. The vision of the 

Glories upon glories 

Hath our God prepared, 
By the souls that love Him 

One day to be shared, 

was changed from faith to sight soon after he had written the beautiful 
description of the pilgrim's country — the goal of this marching hymn: — 

Far o'er yon horizon 

Rise the city towers, 
Where our God abideth; 

That fair home is ours. 
Flash the streets with jasper, 

Shine the gates with gold; 
Flows the gladdening river, 

Shedding joys untold; 
Thither, onward thither, 

In the Spirit's might; 
Pilgrims to your country, 

Forward into light. 

In his hymn beginning: 

Ten thousand times ten thousand 

In sparkling raiment bright, 
The armies of the ransomed saints 

Throng up the steeps of light, 

the author seems to have gained a still higher altitude and a more rap- 
turous vision of the triumphant glories and joys of the 

"Day for which creation 
And all its tribes were made." 



104 FAVORITE HYMXS 



The author's experience which led to the writing of this hymn is 
thus related: "Our thoughts have been much turned of late to the eternal 
state. Half our children are there, and where the treasure is, there will 
the heart be also." Thus did he learn in suffering to write words of hope 
and comfort for other bereaved souls who are ever longing for a vision of 
the home "Where partings are no more": — 

Oh, then what raptured greetings 

On Canaan's happy shore; 
What knitting severed friendships up, 

Where partings are no more! 
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle 

That brimmed with tears of late; 
Orphans no longer fatherless, 

Nor widows desolate. 

This hymn was sung at the author's own funeral. On his tombstone 
was inscribed the following beautiful and impressive line which he had 
written for the purpose : 

"The Inn of a Traveller on his Wav to Jerusalem." 



Rev. John Samuel Bewley Monsell, LL. D. (1811-1875) 

John Samuel Bewley Monsell was an Irishman by birth, and some- 
time chaplain to Bishop Mant; but the last years of his life were spent 
as Rector of Guildford, Surrey, England. He is well known by his volumes 
of exquisite religious lyrics, and he holds a distinguished place in the 
ranks of recent hymnists, a large number of his hymns being now included 
in the modern hymnals of the Church. He is the author of about three 
hundred hymns, and of these about one-fourth are in common use. His 
hymns, for the most part, are musical, joyous and trustful, and, as such, 
the mirror of his lyric nature, and his own sunny and deeply religious 
spirit. Dr. Monsell held the view that our hymns should be more fervent 
and joyous, and among the brightest examples of hymns of this nature 
are his familiar hymn: 

Sing to the Lord a joyful song, 

Lift up your hearts, your voices raise; 

To us his gracious gifts belong, 

To Him our songs of love and praise; 

his joyful hymn of praise, beginning: 



A\D THEIR AUTHORS 105 

On our way rejoicing, 

As we homeward move, 
Hearken to our praises, 

O Thou God of love! 

and his Thanksgiving hymn: — 

Earth below is teeming, 

Heaven is bright above; 
Every brow is beaming 

In the light of love. 

One of his most tender and impressive hymns is the one on Gethsemane, 
beginning. — 

Wouldst thou learn the depth of sin, all its bitterness and pain? 
What it cost thy God to win sinners to himself again? 

Come, poor sinner, come with me, — 

Visit sad Gethsemane! 

Dr. Monsell died in consequence of an accident whilst he was watching 
the rebuilding of his church at Guildford. 

The opening lines of his last poem, written to raise funds for this 
rebuilding, seem strangely prophetic of his approaching fate: — 

Dear body, thou and I must part, 
Thy busy head, thy throbbing heart, 
Must cease to work, and cease to play, 
For me at no far distant day. 

Among Dr. Monsell's other hymns in common use are the following: — 

"My sins, my sins, my Saviour!" 

"Holy offerings, rich and rare;" 

"To Thee, O dear, dear Saviour!" 

"When cold our hearts, and far from Thee;" 

"Sweet is Thy mercy, Lord!" 

"Fight the good fight with all thy might." 



Mrs. Jane Euphernia Saxby (1811-). 

Mrs. Jane E. Saxby, daughter of William Browne, was married in 
1862 to the Rev. S. H. Saxby, Vicar of East Clevedon, Somersetshire, 
England. Her work, "The Dove on the Cross," published in 1849, has 
passed into numerous editions, and from it several hymns have come into 
use. She was another sweet singer, who through "fellowship of suffering" 
was prepared to write for the comfort of other suffering ones. Her hymns 
are very plaintive and tender. The tone which pervades them is ex- 
plained by her thus: — "I wrote most of my published hymns during a 



108 FAVORITE HYMNS 



very distressing illness, which lasted many years. I thought probably 
that I was then in the 'Border Land/ and wrote accordingly." 
The following exquisite hymn is quoted in full: 

Show me the way, O Lord, 

And make it plain; 
I would obey Thy Word, 
Speak yet again; 
I will not take one step until I know 
Which way it is that Thou wouldst have me go. 

Lord, I cannot see: 
Vouchsafe me light : 

The mist bewilders me, 
Impedes my sight : 
Hold Thou my hand, and lead me by Thy side; 
I dare not go alone, — be Thou my Guide. 

1 will be patient, Lord, 

Trustful and still; 
I will not doubt Thy word; 

My hopes fulfill: 
How can I perish, clinging to Thy side, 
My Comforter, my Saviour, and my Guide? 

More familiar, perhaps, is the hymn on "The Comforter," of which 
the first two stanzas follow: 

O Spirit of the living God 

Brooding with dove-like wings 
Over the helpless and the weak 

Among created things: 

W T here should our feebleness find strength, 

Our helplessness a stay, 
Didst Thou not bring us strength and help 

And comfort day by day? 



William Josiah Irons, D. D. (181 2-1884). 

William Josiah Irons was one of the successors of John Newton in 
the incumbency of St. Mary Woolnoth, London. He was a Bampton 
Lecturer of mark, and a considerable contributor to the theological litera- 
ture of his day. He is the author of many hymns, both original and trans- 
lations. In his "Psalms and Hymns for the Church," Dr. Irons provided 
a complete series of original compositions adapted to the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. Many of these are of great excellence, but little known. 

Following are the first two stanzas of his beautiful hymn for Palm 
Sunday : 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 107 

"Is not this our King and Prophet?" 

Ring Hosannas, wave the palm, 
Let the children from the temple 

Echo back the people's psalm; 
" Blessed is the Son of David," 

Blessed is the Christ of God! 
Welcome to the hill of Zion, 

Deck the pathway, strew the sod! 

"Meek and lowly One," He cometh, 

And the anthem greets his ears; 
Lo, the city lies before Him, 

But He sees it through His tears; 
Looking from the Mount of Olives, 

Towers and marble temple rise : 
Is thy peace, O well-loved Salem, 

"Hid for ever from thine eyes?" 

Equally fine, and more familiar, is his hymn beginning with the 
stanza : — 

Father of love, our guide and friend, 

Oh, lead us gently on, 
Until life's trial-time shall end, 

And heavenly peace be won. 
We know not what the path may be, 

As yet by us untrod; 
But we can trust our all to Thee, 

Our Father and our God. 

From these quotations it will be seen that Dr. Irons merits the high 
place accorded him among modern hymn-writers. He was also an accom- 
plished translator, and has the distinction of having produced the most 
popular version among the 160 translations known to have been made 
of the "Dies Irae," which begins, — 

"Day of wrath! O day of mourning." 



Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843). 

Robert Murray McCheyne was the greatly beloved minister of St. 
Peter's, Dundee, Scotland. By the intensity of his ministerial devotion, 
and his saintly life, which came to an end when he was only thirty years 
of age, he exerted a deep and wide influence — an influence perpetuated 
by the publication of his memoir by the Rev. A. A. Bonar, which had an 
enormous circulation. Among the several hymns he wrote, the one en- 
titled "I am a debtor" is in most frequent use. Following are two stanzas 
of this tender and solemn hymn: 



108 FAVORITE HYMXS 



When this passing world is done, 
W r hen has sunk yon glaring sun; 
When I stand with Christ in glory, 
Looking o'er life's finished story: 
Then, Lord, shall I fully know — 
Not till then — how much I owe. 

WTien I stand before the throne, 
Dressed in beauty not my own; 
WTien I see Thee as Thou art, 
Love Thee with unsinning heart : 
Then, Lord, shall I fully know — 
Not till then — how much I owe. 



Miss Jane Borthwick (1813-1897). 

Jane Borthwick, a Scottish lady of Christian culture, is known chiefly 
as joint authoress with her sister, Mrs. Findlater, of "Hymns from the 
Land of Luther," one of the finest collections of translations from the 
German we possess in the English language. These translations, with 
Miss Winkworth's and Miss Cox's work in the same field, have done 
much to place the rich treasures of German Hymnology within the reach 
of English readers. From translations Miss Borthwick passed to original 
work, for which she possessed, as most good hymn translators do, a rare 
poetic quality of her own. 

Miss Borthwick was of a bright and cheerful temperament, and like 
the other gifted women hymn-writers who were contemporary with her 
— Miss Havergal, Mrs. Alexander, Adelaide Proctor — she was an active 
and zealous Christian worker. For many years she held large classes in 
Reformatories in Edinburgh, helped in the Home Mission work of the 
Free Church, and gave her hearty support to Foreign Missions. She was 
a devoted leader in the work to which she calls others in the clarion notes 
of her hymn, from which we quote the first and last three stanzas: 

Come, labor on! 
Who dares stand idle on the harvest-plain, 
While all around him waves the golden grain? 
And to each servant does the Master say, 

Go work today. 

Come, labor on! 
Away with gloomy doubts and faithless fear! 
No arms so weak, but may do service here; 
By hands the feeblest can our God fulfill 

His righteous will. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 109 

Come, labor on! 
No time for rest, till glows the western sky, 
While the long shadows o'er our pathway lie, 
And a glad sound comes with the setting sun — 

Servants, well done! 

Come, labor on! 
The toil is pleasant, and the harvest sure, 
Blessed are those who to the end endure; 
How full their joy, how deep their rest shall be, 

O Lord, with Thee! 

Equally good, but in quite another vein is her pathetic hymn, be- 
ginning with the stanza : 

Thou knowest, Lord, the weariness and sorrow 
Of the sad heart that comes to Thee for rest; 

Cares of today, and burdens for to-morrow, 
Blessings implored, and sins to be confessed; 

We come before thee at Thy gracious word, 

And lay them at Thy feet: Thou knowest, Lord. 

Miss Borthwick received many testimonies as to the help given by 
her hymns. Especially helpful to weary and heavy-laden souls, seeking 
for light and peace, has been her hymn closing with the stanza: 

Rest, weary soul; 
The penalty is borne, the ransom paid; 
For all thy sins full satisfaction made. 
Strive not to do thyself what Christ hath done : 
Claim the free gift, and make the joy thine own. 
No more by pangs of guilt and fear distressed, 

Rest, sweetly rest. 

At the advanced age of eighty-four, Miss Borthwick peacefully en- 
tered into the full realization of the "rest" and "joy" which she had so 
beautifully described in her appeals to others, and learned from her own 
experience, how 

"Blessed are those who to the end endure; 
How full their joy, how deep their rest shall be, 
O Lord, with Thee!" 



Mrs. Jemima Luke (1813-). 

Mrs. Jemima Luke, the wife of Rev. Samuel Luke, an Independent 
minister of England, was the daughter of Thomas Thompson, a phil- 
anthropist. In early life Mrs. Luke purposed entering the Mission Field 
at India. She was prevented by a serious illness, but she has done much 
by her pen to further the cause of Foreign Missions, and was for several 



110 FAVORITE HYMNS 

years editor of the "Missionary Repository." The first two stanzas of 
her Children's hymn, which Mr. W. Garrett Horder says "deserves to be 
reckoned classic," were written in a stage coach, while on the way to the 
little town of Wellington, five miles from Taunton. The third verse was 
added afterwards to make it a missionary hymn. It was first sung at a 
village Sunday School supported by Mrs. Luke's step-mother, of which 
the author's father was superintendent, and in which Mrs. Luke and her 
sisters were teachers. The words were adapted to the measures of a 
Greek marching air, which had taken the writer's fancy, but which, like 
the tune for "Happy Land," was not to be found in the hymn-books. 
The hymn, as given in the hymnals, consists of six stanzas, but it appears 
to have been originally arranged in three long stanzas. Following is a 
part of the hymn: 

I think, when I read that sweet story of old, 

When Jesus was here among men, 
How He called little children as Lambs to His fold, 

I should like to have been with Him then. 

I wish that His hands had been placed on my head, 
That His arms had been thrown around me, 

That I might have seen His kind look when he said, 
"Let the little ones come unto me." 

I long for that blessed and glorious time, 

The fairest, the brightest, the best, 
When the dear little children of every clime, 

Shall crowd to His arms and be blest. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Nineteenth Century. 



Man first learned song in Paradise, from the bright angels o'er him sing- 

And in our home above the sky glad anthems are forever ringing. 

God lends His ear, well pleased to hear the songs that cheer his children's 

sorrow; 
Till day shall break, and we shall wake where love will make unfading 

morrow. 

Rev. G. W. Bethune, D. D. 




Frederick William Faber, D. D. (1814-1863). 

REDERICK William Faber was born at Calverly Vicarage, 
Yorkshire, England, graduated at Oxford in 1836; was 
ordained Presbyter in the Church of England in 1839; 
after traveling on the continent for four years, returned 
to England and became rector of Elton in 1843, but in 
1846 he seceded to the Church of Rome. 

From his earliest years he gave promise of remarkable powers of 
mind, which his parents, who were persons of considerable ability, care- 
fully fostered. From the time of his arrival at Oxford, he attended the 
parochial services at St. Mary's, and soon became an enthusiastic admirer 
of John Henry Newman, then vicar of the church. He also threw him- 
self eagerly into the great movement begun in 1833, for the revival of 
church principles, the chief exposition of which was the series of "Tracts 
for the Times." He was a man of great personal charm, and had mar- 
velous gifts as an orator. One of his most valued friends was Mr. Words- 
worth, whose poetry had been the object of his early admiration, and 
had contributed largely to the development of his own poetical spirit. 
Before his secession he published several prose works, and several volumes 
of poetry and verse, but all his hymns were written after he joined the 
Church of Rome. He felt the want of a collection of English Catholic 



112 FAVORITE HYMNS 



hymns fitted for singing and to meet this need he published a small book 
of twelve original hymns for the schools at St. Wilfrids. These hymns 
soon became very popular, and the author's efforts to supply the constant 
demand for more, resulted in a total of 150 pieces, all of which are in his 
"Hymns," published in 1862. 

Faber possessed the lyric and poetic gift in abundant measure, and 
the spiritual vision, the intensity of fervor and the poetic quality, which 
are all combined in his hymns, give him a high place among the chief 
singers of the Church. Indeed, he rises so high in many of his hymns 
that he may rightfully be regarded as one of the greatest hymnists of any 
age. The following stanzas from his beautiful poem on "The God of 
my Childhood " give us a glimpse of the way by which he was led in attain- 
ing to such high distinction: 

God! who wert my childhood's love, 
My boyhood's pure delight, 

A presence felt the livelong day, 
A welcome fear at night. 

At school Thou wert a kindly Face 

Which I could almost see; 
But home and holy day appeared 

Somehow more full of Thee. 

And to home-Sundays long since past 

How fondly memory clings; 
For then my mother told of Thee 

Such sweet, such wondrous things. 

1 lived two lives, which seemed distinct, 
Yet which did intertwine: 

One was my mother's — it is gone — 
The other, Lord! was Thine. 

With age Thou grewest more divine, 

More glorious than before; 
I feared Thee with a deeper fear, 

Because I loved Thee more. 

Father! What hast Thou grown to now? 

A joy all joys above, 
Something more sacred than a fear, 

More tender than a love ! 

With gentle swiftness lead me on, 

Dear God! to see Thy Face; 
And meanwhile in my narrow heart 

O make Thyself more space ! 

Having found rest from the struggles and turmoils of the world 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 113 

■without, and the Church which he had left, in the cloistered seclusion of 
the Church of his choice, Faber's constant communion with things spiritual 
and eternal as they were revealed to his gifted mind and loving heart, 
prepared him to give the beautiful fruitage of his own experience to the 
weary multitudes who are ever in need of such refreshment and inspira- 
tion. Surely the Christian virtues were never made to appear more 
charming and attractive than by his pen. Following are the first and last 
stanzas of his hymn on faith: 

O gift of gifts ! O grace of faith ! 

My God, how can it be 
That Thou, who hast discerning love, 

Shouldst give that gift to me? 

Oh, happy, happy that I am! 

If thou canst be, O faith, 
The treasure that thou art in life, 

What wilt thou be in death? 

In the fourth stanza of his beautiful hymn beginning: 

"Hark! hark! my soul! Angelic songs are swelling," 
he writes of the Christian's hope, when life seems "long and dreary": — 

Rest comes at length : though life be long and dreary, 
The day must dawn, and darksome night be past; 

Faith's journeys end in welcome to the weary, 

And heaven, the heart's true home, vail come at last. 

In his remarkable hymn beginning : 

Was there ever kinder shepherd 

Half so gentle, half so sweet 
As the Saviour who would have us 

Come and gather round his feet? 

we find the following stanzas on the Love of God: 

For the love of God is broader 

Than the measure of man's mind; 
And the heart of the Eternal 

Is most wonderfully kind. 

But we make His love too narrow 

B3/ false limits of our own; 
And we magnify his strictness 

With a zeal he will not own. 

How beautiful is the simplicity and humility expressed in his hymn: 

Thy home is with the humble, Lord! 

The simplest are the best; 
Thy lodging is in childlike hearts; 

Thou makest there thy rest. 



114 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Dear Comforter ! Eternal love ! 

If Thou wilt stay with me, 
Of lowly thoughts and simple ways 

I'll build a house for Thee. 

And how marvellous is the lyric grace and spiritual insight with 
which he portrays the power, glory, holiness, wisdom, justice, mercy and 
tenderness of God in his incomparable hymn, beginning: 

God! Thy power is wonderful, 
Thy glory passing bright; 

Thy wisdom, with its deep on deep, 
A rapture to the sight. 

Equalling, if not surpassing this, is his gem of a hymn; 

My God, how wonderful Thou art! 

Thy majesty how bright! 
How glorious is Thy mercy-seat, 

In depths of burning light ! 

In contemplating the infinite wisdom of God, and the comparative 
impotency of man's wisdom, he was led to the same conclusion which 
St. Paul expressed in different language, so long ago — that "The wisdom 
of man is foolishness in the sight of God." In one of his hymns which 
is not in common use, he says: 

The schoolmen can teach thee far less about heaven, 
Of the height of God's power, or the depth of his love, 

Than the fire in thy heart when thy sin was forgiven, 
Or the light that one mercy brings down from above. 

In the fourth stanza of his hymn, beginning; 

"I worship Thee, sweet will of God," 
Faber could say: 

1 have no cares, O blessed will! 

For all my cares are Thine; 
I live in triumph, Lord, for Thou 
Hast made Thy triumphs mine. 

But he could not always live on this mount of perfect trust and triumph. 
There were times when he could not rise above the plane of common 
experiences, and the plaintive notes of some of his hymns prove his fellow- 
ship with our common humanity. In the hymn beginning: 

O it is hard to work with God, 

To rise and take his part 
Upon this battlefield of earth, 

And not sometimes lose heart! 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 115 

we find notes of doubt and discouragement, but reassurance in the closing 

stanza : 

But right is right, since God is God; 

And right the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 

To falter would be sin! 

Among his other plaintive hymns are : 

"O for the happy days gone by, 

When love ran smooth and free," 
and 

"Why, dearest Lord, can I not pray, 

And why am I not free?" 

In closing the preface to the edition of his hymns published in 1862 
the author says: "It is an immense mercy of God to allow anyone to do 
the least thing which brings souls nearer to Him. Each man feels for 
himself the peculiar wonder of that mercy in his own case. That our 
blessed Lord has permitted these hymns to be of some trifling good to 
souls, and so in a very humble way to contribute to His glory, is to the 
author a source of profitable confusion as well as of unmerited consola- 
tion." By this "immense mercy of God," for which Faber was so humbly 
grateful, millions of souls have been brought nearer to Him, and the 
"consolation and profitable confusion" of the author must have been 
changed to songs of thanksgiving, in which a great multitude in this 
world would gladly join, if he has been permitted to know how much his 
hymns have contributed to the glory of our Blessed Lord. 

Among the other hymns by Faber in common use is the one begin- 
ning: 

"Workman of God, O lose not heart, 
But learn what God is like," 

which is "As lofty as the love of God, and wide as are the wants of man; " 

his evening hymn : — 

"Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go; " 

"Oh, come and mourn with me a while; " 

"Dear Jesus, ever at my side; " 

"O Paradise, O Paradise;" 

"Holy Ghost, come down upon Thy children; " 

"O how the love of God attracts; " 

"Think well how Jesus trusts Himself." 

Nearly all of Faber's hymns have undergone abridgment and verbal 

alterations, and thus it happens that the hymn beginning in some hymnals 

with 

"Was there ever kinder shepherd," 

in other hymnals begins with 



116 FAVORITE HYMNS 



"Souls of men, why will ye scatter; " 
and other stanzas are found in different hymns. 

Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D. (1815-1881). 

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was born at Alderley, England. At the age 
of fifteen he became a pupil under Dr. Arnold at Rugby, and he is said 
to have been the original of "Arthur" in the classic "Tom Brown's School 
Days." His career at Rugby and Oxford was exceptionally brilliant, 
and he was appointed Professor of Ecclesiastical History there in 1856. 
In 1864 he became Dean of Westminster, and is said to have been "the 
ideal Dean of that famous minster where England buries and commemo- 
rates her illustrious dead." He was a man of broad and liberal Christian 
views, and of such personal fascination that he was loved by all who knew 
him, even by those who most differed from him in their theological opin- 
ions. He was one of England's most eminent authors, his prose works 
including valuable works on the Holy Land, the Jewish and Eastern 
churches, the Cathedral of Canterbury, of which he was once a canon, 
and on the Abbey of Westminster, "Life of Dr. Arnold," etc. 

As a writer of verse, he does not reach the high standard of lyric 
and poetical excellence required by modern critics, hence he has been 
assigned a small place among the hymnists; but his hymns are full of 
"sweetness and light," and when not viewed with the purist's eye, may 
be said to be among the most helpful and valuable of the many hymns 
written by eminent authors. One of his most popular hymns is the one 
on the Ascension of Christ: 

He is gone : a cloud of light 
Has received Him from our sight; 
High in heav'n, where eye of men 
Follows not, nor angel's ken, 
Through the veils of time and space, 
Passed into the holiest place; 
All the toil, the sorrow done, 
All the battle fought and won. 

He is gone; but we once more 
Shall behold Him as before. 
In the heaven of heavens the same, 
As on earth He went and came. 
In the many mansions there, 
Place for us He will prepare; 
In that world unseen, unknown, 
He and we may yet be one. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 117 

During Dean Stanley's visit to the Holy Land in 1853, he, along 
with other modern authorities, located the scene of the Transfiguration 
on Mount Hermon. His contemplation of that scene on the "holy mount " 
inspired one of the best hymns we have on that subject. The first line 
of this hymn in most hymnals is "O, Master, it is good to be," but in the 
author's final revision, he altered it to "Lord, it is good for us to be." 
Following are the first and second stanzas of this hymn: 

Lord, it is good for us to be 

High on the mountain here with Thee, 

Where stand revealed to mortal gaze 

The great old saints of other days, 

Who once received from Horeb's height, 

The eternal laws of truth and right, 

Or caught the still small whisper, higher 

Than storm, than earthquake, or than fire. 

Lord, it is good for us to be 

With Thee, and with Thy faithful three, 

Here, where the Apostle's heart of rock 

Is nerved against temptation's shock; 

Here, where the Son of Thunder learns 

The thought that breathes, the word that burns; 

Here, where on eagle's wings we move 

With Him whose last, best creed is love. 

Very excellent is his hymn, beginning: 

The Lord is come ! In Him we trace 
The fulness of God's truth and grace; 

and closing with the stanza : — 

The Lord is come ! In every heart 
Where truth and mercy claim a part, 
In every land where Right is Might, 
And deeds of darkness shun the light, 
In every church where faith and love 
Lift earthward thoughts to things above, 
In every holy, happy home, — 
We thank Thee, Lord, that Thou art come. 

Rev. John Ernest Bode (1816-1874). 

Rev. J. E. Bode, a distinguished English clergyman, Rector of Castle 
Camps, Cambridgeshire, England, is the author of the popular hymn of 
consecration, which is specially suitable for occasions of Adult Baptism, and 
the reception of members into the fellowship of the Church. We quote 
the following stanzas: 



118 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Jesus, I have promised 
To serve Thee to the end; 
Be Thou for ever near me, 
My Master and my friend! 

1 shall not fear the battle 

If Thou art by my side, 
Nor wander from the pathway, 
If Thou wilt be my Guide. 

O Jesus, Thou hast promised, 

To all who follow Thee, 

That where Thou art in glory, 

There shall Thy servant be; 
And Jesus, I have promised 

To serve Thee to the end; 
Oh, give me grace to follow, 

My Master and my friend! 

Rev. Henry Downton, M. A. (1818-1885). 

Henry Downton, an English clergyman, for many years Chaplain 
of the English Church at Geneva, is the author of many original hymns 
and translations from the French, chiefly of Alexandre Vinet. He pos- 
sessed the faculty for hymn composition in a very marked degree. One 
of his best known original productions is the Missionary Hymn, beginning 
with the stanza : 

Lord, her watch Thy church is keeping; 

When shall earth Thy rule obey? 
When shall end the night of weeping? 

When shall break the promised day? 
See the whit'ning harvest languish, 

Waiting still the laborers' toil; 
Was it vain, Thy Son's deep anguish? 

Shall the strong retain the spoil? 

Following are the first and last stanzas of another fine hymn, in 
which he sings of "mercy and judgment" in alternate verses: 

My song shall be of mercy : 

To Thee, O Lord, I sing, 
Who all my life hast hid me 

Beneath Thy shelt'ring wing; 
Who still, in love most patient, 

This mortal journey through, 
Hast followed me with goodness, 

And blessings ever new. 

My song shall be of judgment: 

Ye who His chastenings feel, 
Oh, faint not, nor be weary, 

He wounds that He may heal! 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 119 

Yes, bless the hand that smiteth, 

And in your grief confess 
That all His ways are wisdom, 

And truth, and righteousness. 

Probably the most popular of all his hymns in common use is his 
solemn and tender New Year's hymn, from which the following stanzas 
are quoted: 

For Thy mercy and Thy grace, 

Constant through another year, 
Hear our song of thankfulness; 

Jesus, our Redeemer, hear. 

Dark the future; let Thy light 

Guide us, bright and morning star: 
Fierce our foes, and hard the fight; 

Arm us, Saviour, for the war. 

Keep us faithful, keep us pure, 

Keep us evermore Thine own; 
Help, O help us to endure; 

Fit us for the promised crown. 

John Mason Neale, D. D. (1818-1866). 

John Mason Neale, an eminent English clergyman, and the famous 
translator of Mediaeval hymns, was born in London; graduated at Cam- 
bridge in 1840; the following year entered the ministry, and was pre- 
sented in 1842 to the small living of Crawley in Sussex, where, after six 
weeks, his health broke down, and he had to go to Madeira. Fortunately 
there was a fine library in connection with the cathedral there, whence 
he drew materials for the works for which in after years he became so 
renowned. On returning to England with health restored he received 
in 1846 an appointment as Warden of Sackville College, which he held 
until his death. This "College" was only an almshouse, and the War- 
den's salary averaged 27 pounds a year. 

Dr. Neale received the degree of D. D. from America, but the Church 
of England gave him no preferment. Though he received little encourage- 
ment from the patrons of his own Church, his mind was unfettered, and 
he found opportunity in his humble position to become an industrious 
and voluminous writer both in prose and verse. He won the Cambridge 
Seatonian prize for sacred poetry eleven times, and he wrote many original 
hymns, especially for children, of much merit, but he was above all else 
a translator of genius, and his eminence in hymnody is chiefly due to the 



120 FAVORITE HYMNS 



exquisite way in which he translated and adapted the stores of hymnody 
buried in the books of the ancient churches, for the use of English-speaking 
people. He revealed to the world the treasures of Greek hymnody, having 
in this field "neither predecessor nor master." He knew twenty languages 
including Latin, of which he had an extraordinary mastery. 

Archbishop Trench called him "the most profoundly learned hym- 
nologist of our church." But he desired no monopoly, or copyright, of 
his productions. On the contrary, he held the view, that "a hymn, 
whether original, or translated, ought, the moment it is published, to 
become the common property of Christendom, the author retaining no 
private right in it whatever." Rev. Duncan Campbell says: "The full 
story of his life and work has not yet been given to the world. If it ever 
is, it will make plain that the Church of England in an age of strong men 
had few personalities of greater force, and none of more single-eyed de- 
votion, than John Mason Neale." 

His last work — much of it done on his death-bed — was a volume of 
original hymns which opens with a beautiful prologue "in dear memory 
of John Keble." When the end drew near, and he could no longer write, 
or compose, his friends sang to him the beautiful hymns of Bernard of 
Morlaix. At his funeral they sang his adaptation from St. Joseph the 
hymnographer, a special favorite with him, for the exquisite music of 
its words. Following is the first verse: — 

Safe home, safe home in port! 

Rent cordage, shatter'd deck, 
Torn sails, provisions short, 

And only not a wreck; 
But oh! the joy upon the shore, 
To tell our voyage-perils o'er. 

On his coffin there was inscribed by his own direction, in Latin, the 
words which in English read: "J. M. Neale. Poor and unworthy priest 
resting under the sign of the Cross." His great work finished, he was 
found, in utter humility and self-abnegation in his last illness, "laying 
in the dust all his works and all his talents, and casting himself as a little 
child only on the atoning work of Jesus Christ." 

Only a few of Dr. Neale's original hymns are in common use, but a 
large number of his translations are found in all modern hymnals. Among 
the former, those considered the best are his fine Evening hymn, from 
which we quote the following stanzas: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 121 

The day, O Lord, is spent; 

Abide with us, and rest; 
Our hearts' desires are fully bent 

On making Thee our guest. 

We have not reached that land, 

That happy land, as yet, 
Where holy angels round Thee stand, 

Whose sun can never set. 

Our sun is sinking now, 

Our day is almost o'er; 
O Sun of Righteousness, do Thou 

Shine on us evermore! 

and his excellent hymn for the laying of a corner-stone, beginning: — 

O Lord of hosts, whose glory fills 
The bounds of the eternal hills, 
And yet vouchsafes, in Christian lands, 
To dwell in temples made with hands. 

Among the best known of Dr. Neale's renderings from the Greek 
and Latin, are the following: — 

"The day is past and over;" 

"The day of resurrection;" 

"Let our choir new anthems raise;" 

"Jerusalem the Golden;" 

"Brief life is here our portion; " 

"All glory, laud and honor;" 

"Those eternal bowers, man hath never trod." 

A striking example of the "diversity of gifts" is found in the fact 
that, although Dr. Neale was so richly endowed for his chosen work and 
was passionately fond of music, he was never able to sing any of his beauti- 
ful hymns, for "he had not a note in his voice." It is also said that Dr. 
Horatius Bonar, "though delicately sensitive to the music of words, was 
no singer, and could distinguish only veiy familiar airs." So, by defects, 
as well as woes, is the whole world kin. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Nineteenth Century. 



Lo, heaven and earth, and sea and air, 
Their Maker's glory all declare! 
And thou, my soul, awake and sing, — 
To him thy praises also bring. 

Joachim Neander. 




Thomas Hornblower Gill (1819-). 

HOMAS H. Gill was born in Birmingham, England, in 1819. 
His parents belonged to the English Presbyterian families, 
which had become Unitarian in their doctrine. His hered- 
itary Unitarianism prevented him [from subscribing to the 
articles of the Church of England, without which he could not en- 
ter the University of Oxford, and he was constrained to lead the life 
of an isolated student, in which he gave himself chiefly to classical 
and historical studies. His life being singularly devoid of outward inci- 
dent, all that can be chronicled is connected with the publication of his 
various works, and the almost unique influences which combined to form 
his character and determine his thinking. He came of a Puritan stock, 
but his immediate ancestors had fallen under the influence of Unitarian- 
ism, in which he was brought up. In after years he became an ardent 
admirer of the hymns and lyrics of Dr. Watts, and the contrast between 
their native force and fulness, and their dwindled presentation in Unitarian 
hymn-books began that estrangement from his hereditary faith which 
gradually became complete. 

Mr. Gill has written several volumes of poetry and prose but the 
interest of his life gathers about his hymns, and the overmastering tides 
of thought and feeling which gave them birth. The late Dr. Freeman 
Clarke, of America, used to call him "a more intellectual Charles Wesley." 
He is without question a true poet, and brings a fresh mind to bear on 
the old themes of Christian truth and Christian experience. To his 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 123 

Puritan ancestry may be traced the deep religiousness of his hymns; 
to his Unitarian training their ethical earnestness; and to his poetical 
temperament their freedom from conventionality. His hymns have great 
sweetness of melody, purity of diction, and happy adaption of metre 
and style to the subject of each hymn. Mr. Gill's hymns number about 
two hundred. Of these over eighty are in common use in Great Britain 
and America. Perhaps the most popular of his hymns is the one sug- 
gested by "The second man was the Lord from heaven," and "as we 
have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the 
heavenly." Following are the first two stanzas of this hymn: 

O, mean may seem this house of clay, 

Yet 'twas the Lord's abode; 
Our feet may mourn this thorny way, 

Yet here Immanuel trod. 

This fleshly robe the Lord did wear; 

This watch the Lord did keep, 
These burdens sore the Lord did bear, 

These tears the Lord did weep. 

The closing verses, referring to the "image of the heavenly," are: — 

O mighty grace, our life to live, 

To make our earth divine; 
O mighty grace, Thy heaven to give, 

And lift our life to Thine. 

Yes, strange the gift and marvellous 

By Thee received and given! 
Thou tookest woe and death for us, 

And we receive Thy heaven. 

One of his finest and most characteristic hymns begins with the 
stanza : 

Our God ! our God ! Thou shinest here, 

Thine own this latter day: 
To us Thy radiant steps appear; 

We watch Thy glorious way. 

The sweetness of subjection to Christ is delightfully set forth in the 
hymn beginning: 

Dear Lord and Master mine, 

Thy happy servant see! 
My Conqueror! with what joy divine, 

Thy captive clings to thee! 

Mr. Gill is a passionate lover of nature, as will be seen from his beauti- 
ful hymn on the "Divine Renewer," beginning: 



124 FAVORITE HYMNS 



The glory of the Spring, how sweet! 

The new born life, how glad! 
What joy the happy earth to greet, 

In new bright raiment clad. 

Full of life and tenderness is his New Year's hymn:- 

Break, new-born year, on glad eyes break! 

Melodious voices move! 
On, rolling time ! Thou canst not make 

The Father cease to love. 



Miss Anna Laetitia Waring (1820-). 

The beautiful Christian lyrics of Anna Laetitia Waring of Neath 
Wales, are characterized by great simplicity, pure and elevated sentiment, 
and elegance of diction. Very little is known as to her personal history, 
but her hymns are universally admired for their spiritual beauty and 
earnest expression of Christian experience. Her tender and trustful lyrics 
are now included in a large number of church hymnals. The most popu- 
lar is the widely known hymn, beginning with the stanzas: — 

Father, I know that all my life 

Is portioned out for me; 
The changes that are sure to come, 

I do not fear to see: 
I ask Thee for a present mind, 

Intent on pleasing Thee. 

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love 

Through constant watching wise, 
To meet the glad with joyful smiles, 

To wipe the weeping eyes; 
A heart at leisure from itself 

To soothe and sympathize. 

The familiar hymn, from which we quote the first verse, is remark- 
able for the spirit of simple and confiding faith and trust which breathes 

through it: — 

In heavenly love abiding, 

No change my heart shall fear; 
And safe is such confiding, 

For nothing changes here. 
The storm may roar about me, 

My heart may low be laid, 
But God is round about me, 

And can I be dismayed? 

Quite equal, though less known, is the hymn beginning: 

My heart is resting, O my God, 
I will give thanks and sing; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 125 

My heart is at the secret source 

Of every pleasant thing: 
Now the frail vessel Thou hast made 

No hand but Thine shall fill; 
For the waters of this world have failed, 

And I am thirsty still. 

Perhaps the most tenderly trustful of all is the one from which we 
quote the first and last stanzas: 

Go not far from me, O my Strength, 

Whom all my times obey; 
Take from me anything Thou wilt, 

But go not Thou away; 
And let the storm that does Thy work 

Deal with me as it may. 

There is no death for me to fear, 

For Christ, my Lord, hath died; 
There is no curse in this my pain, 

For He was crucified; 
And it is fellowship with Him 

That keeps me near His side. 

Rev. Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877). 

Henry Williams Baker was the eldest son of Admiral Sir Henry 
Loraine Baker. He was born in London, and educated at Trinity Col- 
lege, Cambridge. Taking Holy Orders in 1844, he became in 1851, Vicar 
of Monkland, Herefordshire. This benefice he held until his death. He 
succeeded to the baronetcy in 1851. Sir Henry's name is intimately 
associated with Hymnody. He was a hymn-writer of distinction, and 
a hymnal editor of great ability, having been chiefly instrumental in 
giving to the Church that phenomenally successful collection, "Hymns 
Ancient and Modern." One of his earliest compositions was his very 
beautiful hymn, beginning: 

Oh, what, if we are Christ's, 

Is earthly shame or loss? 
Bright shall the crown of glory be 

When we have borne the cross. 

His hymns, including litanies and translations, number thirty-three 
in all. One of his best and most familiar translations is, — 

"O sacred Head surrounded 
By crown of piercing thorn," 

by Bernard of Clairvaux. His original hymns are characterized by earnest- 



126 AND THEIR AUTHORS 

ness of utterance, simplicity of language, and smoothness of rhythm. 
Only a few of his hymns are in a very jubilant strain; a few others are 
bright and cheerful, and the remainder are very tender, sometimes plain- 
tive even to sadness — by their tone and spirit reminding one of the saintly 
Lyte. "This tender sadness, brightened by a soft, calm peace, was an 
epitome of his poetical life." During Sir Henry's last illness Frances 
Ridley Havergal sent him, in expression of sympathy, a hymn contain- 
ing these lines: — 

I take this pain, Lord Jesus, 

From Thine own hand; 
The strength to bear it bravely 

Thou wilt command. 

He made this hymn his farewell to his people, sending it from his death- 
bed to be printed in his parish magazine. Probably the most popular of 
all his hymns is his exquisite rendering of the twenty-third Psalm: 

The King of love my Shepherd is, 

Whose goodness faileth never: 
I nothing lack if I am His 

And He is mine forever. 

The last audible words that lingered on his dying lips were the third 
stanza of this hymn: 

Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, 

But yet in love He sought me, 
And on His shoulder gently laid, 

And home, rejoicing, brought me. 

Among his more jubilant hymns are: — 



Praise, O praise our God and King! 

Hymns of adoration sing; 
For His mercies still endure, 

Ever faithful, ever sure. 



and his beautiful hymn, beginning, 



O praise our God today, 

His constant mercy bless, 
Whose love hath blessed us on our way, 

And granted us success; 



and closing with the stanza: 



Lord, may it be our choice 
This blessed rule to keep, 

"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, 
And weep with them that weep." 




Edward Hayes Plumptre. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 127 

Rev. Edward Hayes Plumptre, D. D. (1821-1891). 

Edward Hayes Plumptre was born in London, England; was grad- 
uated from Oxford as double first in 1844, and on taking Holy Orders in 
1846 he rapidly attained to a foremost position as a Theologian and 
Preacher. His appointments were very numerous and important, his 
latest being that of Dean of Wells, 1881. His literary productions have 
been very numerous, and embrace the classics, history, divinity, biblical 
criticism, biography and poetry. As a writer of sacred poetry he ranks 
very high. His historical poems on Roger, Bacon, Milton, Bunyan, and 
certain Scripture characters are scholarly and poetic biographical studies 
of great merit. 

Dr. Plumptre visited America in 1879. While in this country he 
wrote a graceful and prophetic poem, expressing his generous apprecia- 
tion of the "Church of the West." Though a digression, it seems admis- 
sible as a side-light on the character of this famous author and divine 
of the "Church of the East." The poem is dated, Albany, September 
30, 1879. 

"Church of the West in whom we gladly trace 

Our Herbert's glowing hope at last fulfilled, 

And note in passion calmed and discord stilled 
The varied likeness of a sister's face; 
For thee there stretches far and wide through space 

The fields of souls that are for harvest white, 

And 'tis thy task to call the sons of light 
To work as reapers of their dear Lord's grace. 
One faith is ours to keep from age to age, 

But ye in that old path have forward gone, 
And holding still that priceless heritage 

Have cleared the way of many a stumbling-stone. 
Ye learnt from us our wisdom old and new, 
We in our turn at last do well to learn from you." 

Dr. Plumptre's hymns are fervent in spirit, elegant in style, and 
catholic in treatment. The rhythm of his verse is musical; its poetry 
has a special attraction for the cultured, and its stately simplicity, for 
the devout and earnest-minded. His translations from the Latin are 
also very good and musical. One of the finest and most lyric of his com- 
positions is the hymn beginning with the stanzas 

Rejoice, ye pure in heart, 

Rejoice, give thanks and sing; 
Your festal banner wave on high, 

The cross of Christ your King. 



128 FAVORITE HYMNS 



With all the angel-choirs, 

With all the saints on earth, 
Pour out the strains of joy and bliss, 

True rapture, noblest mirth. . 

Equal in merit is his tender and beautiful hymn, of which the first 
two stanzas follow: 

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old 

Was strong to heal and save; 
It triumphed o'er disease and death, 

O'er darkness and the grave: 
To Thee they went, the blind, the dumb, 

The palsied and the lame, 
The leper with his tainted life, 

The sick with fevered frame; 

And lo! Thy touch brought life and health, 

Gave speech, and strength, and sight; 
And youth renewed and frenzy calmed 

Owned Thee, the Lord of light. 
And now, O Lord, be near to bless, 

Almighty as of yore, 
In crowded street, by restless couch, 

As by Gennesareth's shore. 

The author's earnest and devout spirit breathes through his hymn 
of prayer and praise, from which we quote the following stanzas: 

O Light, whose beams illumine all 

From twilight dawn to perfect day, 
Shine Thou before the shadows fall 

That lead our wandering feet astray: 
At morn and eve Thy radiance pour, 
That youth may love and age adore. 

O Way, thro' whom our souls draw near 

To yon eternal home of peace, 
Where perfect love shall cast out fear, 

And earth's vain toil and wand'ring cease; 
In strength or weakness may we see 
Our heavenward path, O Lord, thro' Thee. 

O Life, the well that ever flows 

To slake the thirst of those that faint, 

Thy power to bless what seraph knows? 
Thy joy supreme what words can paint? 

In earth's last hour of fleeting breath 

Be Thou our conqueror over death. 

Mrs. Cecil Frances (Humphreys) Alexander (1823-1895). 

Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander was born in Ireland, and was the second 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 129 

daughter of the late Major John Humphreys. In 1850 she was married 
to the Rt. Rev. W. Alexander, D. D., Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. 

Mrs. Alexander's hymns and poems number about four hundred. 
They are mostly for children. A large number of them have "won their 
way to the hearts of the young and found a home there," and are in very 
extensive use, while several, not classified as Children's hymns, have been 
included in recent hymnals for general use. Her "Hymns for Little 
Children," which appeared in 1848 was, in 1897, in its sixty-ninth edition. 
John Keble, in the preface, expressed the opinion that the hymns con- 
tained in it would "win a high place for themselves in the estimation of 
all who know how to value true poetry and primitive devotion." This 
opinion has been fully justified by the high place her hymns have taken 
in the Church's estimate. 

"But it is not by English-speaking Christians and children only they 
are valued and loved. The Bishop of Tasmania and missionary bishops 
in South Africa and India bear testimony to their usefulness in the mis- 
sion fields as teaching in a form easily remembered the elements of Chris- 
tianity." 

Among Mrs. Alexander's hymns that have been adopted for general 
use are her beautiful hymn written to illustrate the clause "Suffered under 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified," beginning: 

There is a green hill far away, 

Without a city wall, 
Where the dear Lord was crucified, 

Who died to save us all. 

The exquisite hymn on the Nativity : 

Once in Royal David's city 

Stood a lowly cattle shed, 
Where a mother laid her baby 

In a manger for his bed : 
Mary was that mother mild, 
Jesus Christ her little Child. 

The one of almost equal simplicity and beauty on the Second Coming 
of Christ : — 

He is coming, He is coming, 

Not as once He came before, 
Wailing infant born in weakness 

On a lowly stable floor; 

But upon his cloud of glory, 

- - In the crimson-tinted sky, 

Where we see the golden sunrise 

In the rosy distance lie. 



130 FAMILIAR HYMNS 



Her earnest call to more loyal love and service: — 

Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult 

Of our life's wild, restless sea, 
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth, 

Saying, 'Christian, follow me.' 

The one on the Ascension: — 

''The eternal gates lift up their heads, 
The doors are opened wide;" 

The beautiful hymn expressing the ardent longing of a weary soul 
for the life beyond, where "there are perfectness and peace, beyond our 
best desire," beginning: 

"The roseate hues of early dawn, 
The brightness of the day;" 

and the hymn on "Forgiveness of Sins: — 

"When wounded sore, the stricken soul 
Lies bleeding and unbound." 

Rev. James Drummond Burns, M. A. (i 823-1 864). 

Rev. James Drummond Burns of the Free Church of Scotland, and 
afterwards of the Presbytery of London, is numbered among the many 
sweet singers of the Church who "learned in suffering what they taught 
in song." He was richly gifted with poetic power, but was a sufferer for 
many years from illness. The spirit of resignation with which he bore 
his affliction is expressed -in the following plaintive lines: 

"I know that trial works for ends too high for sense to trace; 
That oft in dark attire He sends some embassy of grace! 
May none depart till I have gained the blessing which it bears; 
And learn, though late, I entertained an angel unawares! 
So shall I bless the hour that sent the mercy of the rod; 
And build an altar by the tent where I have met with God!" 

Mr. Burns was a man of rare refinement and saintly character. His 
hymns are among the most tender and pathetic of recent production, 
but as yet a small number of them have been included in modern hymnals. 
Among those which are worthy of a very high place are the one on the 
Love of God, of which the following are the first, fourth and fifth stanzas: 

Thou, Lord, art Love — and everywhere 

Thy name is brightly shown; 
Beneath, on earth — Thy footstool fair, 

Above, in heaven Thy throne. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 131 

Thy thoughts are Love, and Jesus is 

The living voice they find; 
His love lights up the vast abyss 

Of the Eternal Mind. 

Thy chastisements are Love — more deep 

They stamp the seal divine; 
And by a sweet compulsion keep 

Our spirits nearer Thine. 

His hymn beginning: 

Still with Thee, O my God, 

I would desire to be. 
By day, by night, at home, abroad, 

I would be still with Thee. 

and 

"O Thou whose tender feet have trod." 

His hymn on Samuel is one of the loveliest for children, in the lan- 
guage, deserving to rank with the best of Mrs. C. F. Alexander's. We 
quote the first and last stanzas: 

Hushed was the evening hymn, 

The Temple courts were dark; 
The lamp was burning dim 

Before the sacred ark; 
When suddenly a voice divine 
Rang through the silence of the shrine. 

O give me Samuel's mind, 

A sweet, unmurmuring faith, 
Obedient and resigned 

To Thee in life and death; 
That I may read with child-like eyes 
Truths that are hidden from the wise. 

Rev. Godfrey Thring (1823-). 

Godfrey Thring, son of Rev. J. G. D. Thring of Alford, Somerset, 
was an English clergyman; graduated from the Oxford University in 
1846. "The Church of England Hymn Book," edited by him, which 
reaches a higher literary and poetic standard than any other specially 
prepared for that church, contains fifty-nine hymns from his pen, most 
of which are of great merit. Dr. Julian is emphatic as to the excellence 
of Thring's compositions, eulogizing their "massive structure," their 
"tender plaintiveness," their "almost perfect rhythm." "Their prom- 
inent features throughout are a clear vision, a firm faith, a positive reality, 



132 FAVORITE HYMNS 



and an exulting hopefulness." "In Excelsis" contains thirteen of his 
hymns, and they are largely represented in other modern hymnals. One 
of his finest is his " Evening Hymn," beginning: 

The radiant morn hath passed away, 
And spent too soon her golden store; 
The shadows of departing day 
Creep on once more. 

Our life is but an autumn day, 
Its glorious noon how quickly past; — 
Lead us, O Christ, Thou Living Way, 
Safe home at last. 

His hymn on the "Holy Spirit" is both beautiful and original in 
conception: — 

Hear us, Thou that broodest 

O'er the watery deep, 
Waking all creation 

From its primal sleep; 
Holy Spirit, breathing 

Breath of life divine, 
Breathe into our spirits, 

Blending them with thine. 

Perhaps more familiar than either of those mentioned is his lyric 
hymn: — 

Saviour, blessed Saviour, 

Listen while we sing; 
Hearts and voices raising 

Praises to our King. 

Among his other hymns in common use are: — 

"Lord of power, Lord of might;" 
"Jesus came, the heaVns adoring;" 
"Heal me, O my Saviours, heal;" 
"Hark! hark! the organ loudly peals." 

Rev. Henry Twells, M. A. (1823 -1900). 

Henry Twells was educated at St. Peter's College, Cambridge. Tak- 
ing Holy Orders in 1849, he held several appointments as curate and rector, 
and became Honorary Canon of Peterborough Cathedral in 1884. Canon 
Twells wrote several hymns, but he is chiefly known by his beautiful 
evening hymn, which is one of the finest we possess. This hymn has 
been published in hymnals in all parts of the English-speaking world, 
and has been translated into Latin, Greek, German, French, Welsh and 
Irish. We read between the lines of the hymn much of the spiritual 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 133 

insight of the author, and his compassionate yearning to heal and save 
the multitude by leading them to the Saviour, whom he implores in the 
closing words of the hymn to "hear," 

"And in Thy mercy heal us all." 
We quote the following stanzas: 

At even, ere the sun was set, 

The sick, O Lord, around Thee lay; 
O in what divers pains they met ! 

O with what joy they went away! 

Once more 'tis eventide, and we, 

Oppressed with various ills, draw near. 

What if thy form we cannot see? 

We know and feel that Thou are here. 

O Saviour Christ, our woes dispel; 

For some are sick and some are sad; 
And some have never loved Thee well, 

And some have lost the love they had. 

And some have found the world is vain, 
Yet from the world they break not free; 

And some have friends who give them pain, 
Yet have not sought a friend in Thee. 

And none, O Lord, have perfect rest, 

For none are wholly free from sin; 
And they who fain would serve Thee best, 

Are conscious most of wrong within. 

O Saviour Christ, Thou too art man; 

Thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried; 
Thy kind but searching glance can scan 

The very wounds that shame would hide: 

Thy touch has still its ancient power; 

No word from Thee can fruitless fall, 
Hear in this solemn evening hour, 

And in thy mercy heal us all. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Nineteenth Century. 



'Tis but one song I hear where'er I rove,. 
Though countless be the notes, that God is love! 

Thomas Davis. 




Rev. William Walsham How, D. D. (1823-1897). 

ILLIAM Walsham How, born in the year 1823, which saw 
the advent of several other famous authors whose names 
are found in the list of our modern hymn-writers — Mrs. 
C. F. Alexander, James Drummond Burns, Henry Twells, 
Thomas Hughes, Godfrey Thring — was a large contributor to the store 
of church song. He was for many years the devoted Bishop of Bedford, 
and afterwards occupied the see of Wakefield. As Bishop of Bedford he 
had the spiritual oversight of the teeming millions of East London, where 
he was known as the "Poor Man's Bishop," "The People's Bishop," "The 
Omnibus Bishop," kindly titles denoting the love and esteem of the 
people to whom he ministered. He was the author of "Pastor in Paro- 
chia," a much valued manual for ministers, and of many other theolog- 
ical works; but useful as his work has been in other directions, he will 
probably be longest remembered by the hymns he has contributed to 
the worship of the Church. In the Bishop's view, "A good hymn is 
something like a good prayer — simple, real, earnest, and reverent." 
His own certainly fulfill all these requirements; "but best of all it is 
to know that the hymns he gave us are the expression of a nature as 
lovable and trustful as it was robust, the echo of a self-sacrificing and 
devoted life that never grew weary in well doing." His published vol- 
ume, in which he collected his scattered hymns, contains fifty-four. 

A large proportion of these have passed into general use. Only a 
few leading hymn-writers are represented by a larger number in our most 
recent hymnals. Some of his hymns are thrilling in their pathetic tender- 
ness, as — 

"O Jesus, Thou art standing 
Outside the fast-closed door; " 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 135 

Others are at once tender and jubilant, as — 

"For all the saints who from their labors rest," 

a thanksgiving for departed saints. 

We give Thee but thine own, 

Whate'er that gift may be; 
All that we have is Thine alone, 

A trust, O Lord, from Thee, 

is a fine hymn for use at the offertory. 

The characteristics of a good hymn are certainly all to be found in 
the one beginning: 

O one with God the Father 

In majesty and might, 
The brightness of His glory, 

Eternal Light of light; 

also in his hymn on the Holy Scriptures — 

"O Word of God incarnate, 
O Wisdom from on high; " 

and in his fine missionary hymn, — 

Soldiers of the cross, arise, 

Gird you with your armor bright; 

Mighty are your enemies, 

Hard the battle you must fight. 

Among his other hymns in common use are the following: 

"Lord Jesus, when we stand afar;" 
"Nearer, O God, to Thee; " 
"Jesus, name of wondrous love;" 
"To Thee, our God, we fly." 

Francis Turner Palgrave, M. A. (1824-1897). 

Francis Turner Palgrave, eldest son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the his- 
torian, was born at Great Yarmouth, England, and educated at the 
Charterhouse and at Oxford. In 1885 he was elected Professor of Poetry 
in the University of Oxford. He is the author and editor of several 
works of prose and poetry, but is best known by his collection of English 
lyrics, which is a model of editing. This work appeared in 1867, and was 
followed by enlarged editions in 1868 and 1870. His hymns are marked 
by much originality of thought and beauty of diction, as well as great 
tenderness. His object was "to write hymns which should have more 
distinct matter for thought and feeling than many in our collections 



136 FAVORITE HYMNS 



offer, and so, perhaps, be of a little use and comfort to readers," and he 
has admirably succeeded in his object. 

Perhaps the best known of his hymns are those for Morning and 
Evening; the former beginning, 

Lord God of morning and of night, 
and the latter, 

O Light of life, Saviour dear, 

both concluding with the fine doxology — 

Praise God, our Maker and our Friend; 
Praise Him through time, till time shall end, 
Till psalm and song His name adore 
Through heaven's great day of evermore; 

and the hymn which so accurately and tenderly expresses the longing 
of our day for faith in the unseen Christ, from which the following stanzas 
are quoted: 

Thou say'st "Take up thy cross, 

O man, and follow me; " 

The night is black, the feet are slack, 

Yet we would follow Thee. 

But O dear Lord, we cry, 

That we thy face could see ! 

Thy Blessed face one moment's space — 

Then might we follow Thee. 

Dim tracts of time divide 

Those golden days from me; 

Thy voice comes strange o'er years of change; 

How can w r e follow Thee? 

O heavy cross of faith 

In what we cannot see: 

As once of yore Thyself restore 

And help to follow Thee ! 

Within our heart of hearts 

In nearest nearness be: 

Set up Thy throne within thine own:— 

Go, Lord! we follow Thee. 

Mr. Garret Horder, who is a high authority on Hymnology, says; 
"Professor Palgrave's hymns deserve a place of high honor for their 
sobriety of thought, their fidelity to the actual feeling of the time, their 
refined and yet poetical expression." The following quotations from 
hymns that are not in general use are given as examples of the varied 
and distinctive styles of his hymns. From the hymn suggested by our 
Lord's saying, "For behold the kingdom of God is within you:" — 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 137 

O Thou not made with hands, 
Not throned above the skies, 
Not walled with shining walls, 
Nor framed with stones of price, 
More bright than gold or gem, 
God's own Jerusalem. 

Where in life's common ways 
With cheerful feet we go; 
Where in His steps we tread 
Who trod the way of woe; 
Where He is in the heart, 
City of God! thou art. 

From "Lost and Found," in which the influence of sin is seen and 
traced out with rare insight: 

Though we long, in sin-wrought blindness, 

From Thy gracious paths have strayed, 
Cold to Thee and all Thy kindness, 

Willful, reckless, or afraid; 
Through dim clouds that gather round us 

Thou hast sought, and thou hast found us. 

From his exquisitely tender and picturesque description of the course 
of our Lord, in his "Litany to the name of Jesus": 

Thrice-holy Name! that sweeter sounds 
Than streams which down the valley run, 
And tells of more than human love, 
And more than human power in one; 
First o'er the manger-cradle heard, 
Heard since through all the choirs on high; — 
O Child of Mary, Son of God, 
Eternal, hear Thy children's cry! 

While at Thy blessed name we bow, 

Lord Jesus, be amongst us now! 

Within our earth-dimmed souls call up 

The vision of Thy human years; 

The mount of the transfigured form; 

The garden of the bitter tears; 

The cross upreared in darkening skies; 

The thorn-wreathed head; the bleeding side; 

And whisper in the heart, "For you, 

For you I left the heavens and died." 

WTiile at the blessed name we bow, 

Lord Jesus, be amongst us now! 

Adelaide Anne Proctor (1825-1864). 

Adelaide Anne Proctor, was the daughter of Bryan Waller Proctor, 
the poet — better known as "Barry Cornwall." Her love of poetry was 



138 FAVORITE HYMNS 

conspicuous at a very early age. Among the family memorials is a tiny 
album made of small note-paper, into which her favorite passages were 
copied by her mother before she herself could write. She soon displayed 
a remarkable memory, and great quickness of apprehension. In later 
years she was skilled in music and languages. She was the authoress 
of the well-known and delightful "Legends and Lyrics," to which, after 
her death, her friend Charles Dickens prefixed a beautiful sketch of her 
life, in which the following touching incident was recorded: 

"In the spring of 1853, 1 observed, as conductor of the weekly journal, 
Household Words, a short poem among the proffered contributions, very 
different, as I thought, from the shoal of verses perpetually seething 
through the office of such a periodical, and possessing much more merit. 
Its authoress was quite unknown to me. She was one Miss Mary Berwick, 
whom I had never heard of; and she was to be addressed by letter, if 
addressed at all, at a circulating library in the western district of Lon- 
don. Through this channel, Miss Berwick was informed that her poem 
was accepted, and was invited to send another. She complied, and became 
a regular and frequent contributor. Many letters passed between the 
journal and Miss Berwick, but Miss Berwick herself was never seen. 

"This went on until December, 1854, when the Christmas number, 

led The Seven Poor Travelers, was sent to press. Happening to be 
going to dine that day with an old and dear friend, distinguished in litera- 
ture as "Barry Cornwall," I took with me an early proof of that number 
and remarked, as I laid it on the drawing room table, that it contained 
a very pretty poem, written by a certain Miss Berwick. Next day brought 
me the disclosure that I had so spoken of the poem to the mother of its 
writer in its writer's presence, and that the name had been assumed by 
Barry Cornwall's eldest daughter — Miss Adelaide Anne Proctor." 

As the reason for concealing her identity she had said at her home, 
"If I send him, in my own name, verses that he does not honestly like, 
either it will ke very painful to him to return them, or he will print them 
for Papa's sake, and not for their own. So I have made up my mind to 
take my chance fairly with the unknown volunteers." The delicacy and 
self-respect of this resolution was doubtless fully appreciated by Mr. 
Dickens. 

Miss Proctor professed the Roman Catholic faith in 1851, but there 




Adelaide Anne Procter. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 139 

are very few references to the peculiar doctrines . of that Church in her 
poems. In recent years many hymns have been drawn from her "Legends 
and Lyrics" which have acquired a great popularity, which is ever in- 
creasing; but perhaps she is best known as a writer of songs, some of 
which have achieved a phenomenal popularity, such as "The Lost Chord," 
and "Cleansing Fires." There is a vein of deep seriousness in all of her 
poems, indicating that the writer had a constant and vivid impression of 
the fact that "Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal." 
Her favorite themes are the blessings that come through trial — 

"Bless the cleansing fire and the furnace of living pain. — " 
and the strength and comfort of trust — 

"Wisdom and sight are well, but trust is best." 

mong Miss Proctor's best-known hymns are the hymn which she 
calls "Thankfulness," of which the first, third and fourth stanzas follow: 

Our God, we thank Thee, who hast made 

The earth so bright. 
So full of splendor and of joy, 

Beauty and light; 
So many glorious things are here, 

Noble and right! 

We thank Thee more that all our joy 

Is touched with pain; 
That shadows fall in brightest hours, 

That thorns remain; 
So that earth's bliss may be our guide, 

And not our chain. 

For Thou who knowest, Lord, how soon 

Our weak heart clings, 
Hast given us joys, tender and true, 

Yet all with wings, 
So that we see, gleaming on high, 

Diviner things! 

Her "Prayer for Guidance," one of the most helpful and beautiful 
of modern hymns, from which we quote the first three stanzas : 

I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be 

A pleasant road; 
I do not ask that Thou wouldst take from me 

Aught of its load. 

I do not ask that flowers should always spring 

Beneath my feet; 
I know too well the poison and the sting 

Of things too sweet. 



140 FAVORITE HYMNS 



For one thing only, Lord, dear Lord, I plead : 

Lead me aright, 
Though strength should falter, and though heart should 
bleed, 

Through Peace to Light. 

Her poem entitled"The Peace of God." beginning, — 

We ask for Peace, O Lord! 
of which the third stanza follows: 

We ask Thy Peace, O Lord; 

Through storm, and fear, and strife, 
To light and guide us on, 

Through a long, struggling life; 
While no success or pain 

Shall cheer the desperate fight, 
Or nerve what the world calls 

Our wasted might, — 
Yet pressing through the darkness to the light. 

The beautiful Evening Hymn, beginning: 

The shadows of the evening hours 

Fall from the dark'ning sky; 
Upon the fragrance of the flowers 

The dews of evening lie. 

and the poem called "The Pilgrims," beginning: 

The way is long and dreary, 

The path is bleak and bare. 
Our feet are worn and weary, 

But we will not despair; 
More heavy was Thy burden, 

More desolate Thy way, 
O Lamb of God! who takest 

The sin of the world away. 

Mr. Dickens says of Miss Procter, "She was a finely sympathetic 
woman, with a great accordant heart and a sterling noble nature. Nat- 
urally enthusiastic, and conscientiously impressed with a deep sense of 
her Christian duty to her neighbor, she devoted herself to a variety of 
benevolent objects .... Perfectly unselfish, swift to sympathize and eager 
to relieve, she wrought at such designs with a flushed earnestness that 
disregarded season, weather, time of day or night, food, rest. Under 
such a hurry of the spirits, and such incessant occupation, the strongest 
constitution will commonly go down. Hers yielded to the burden and 
began to sink. And so the time came when she could move about no 
longer, and she took to her bed. She lay upon her bed fifteen months . 



AND THEIR AUTHORS L41 

In all that time her old cheerfulness never quitted her. In all that time 
not an impatient or a querulous minute can be remembered." 

At length, at midnight on the 2nd of February, 1864, she turned 
down the leaf of a little book she was reading, and shut it up. 

The ministering hand that had copied the verses into the tiny album 
was soon around her neck, and she quietly asked, as the clock was on the 
stroke of one: "Do you think I am dying, mamma?" 

"I think you are very, very ill to-night, my dear." 

"Send for my sister. My feet are so cold. Lift me up." 

Her sister entering as they raised her, she said: "It has come at last!" 

And with a bright and happy smile looked upward, and departed. 

Well had she written : — 

Why shouldst thou fear the beautiful angel, Death, 
Who waits thee at the portals of the skies, 

Ready to kiss away thy struggling breath, 
Ready with gentle hand to close thine eyes? 

O what were life, if life were all? Thine eyes 
Are blinded by their tears, or thou wouldst see 

Thy treasures wait thee in the far-off skies, 

And Death, thy friend, will give them all to thee. 

In her life, and in her death, Miss Procter exemplified the high ideal 
of faith, and love, and service, expressed in her beautiful lyrics. In her 
life of strenuous service we find the fulfilment of the words of her poem, 
"One by One": — 

One by one thy duties wait thee, 

Let thy whole strength go to each, 
Let no future dreams elate thee, 

Learn thou first what these can teach. 

Every hour that fleets so slowly 

Has its task to do or bear; 
Luminous the crown, and holy, 

When each gem is set with care. 

Hours are golden links, God's token, 

Reaching heaven; but one by one 
Take them, lest the chain be broken 

Ere the pilgrimage be done. 

In her death we see how the Christian can die, who has the hope and 
assurance expressed in her words: 

A little longer still — Patience, Beloved; 

A little longer still, ere heaven unroll 
The glory, and the brightness, and the wonder, 

Eternal, and divine, that waits thy soul! 



142 FAVORITE HYMNS 

A little longer yet — and angel voices 

Shall ring in heavenly chant upon thine ear; 

Angels and saints await thee, and God needs thee; 
Beloved, can we bid thee linger here ! 

Edward Henry Bickersteth, D. D. (1825-). 

Edward Henry Bickersteth, son of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, 
whose "Christian Psalmody" was the best evangelical collection of its 
day, was also most successful as an editor of hymnals. In 1855 he be- 
came Dean of Gloucester, and in the same year, Bishop of Exeter. As a 
poet, he is well known as the author of "Yesterday, Today and Forever" 
in which he treated the themes which inspired Milton and Dante. In the 
Preface to this remarkable work he says, "The design of the following 
poem has been laid up in my heart for more than twenty years .... If it 
may please God to awaken any minds to deeper thought on things unseen 
and eternal, by this humble effort to combine some of the pictorial teach- 
ing supplied by His most holy Word, it will be the answer to many prayers." 
Surely no one who has read the book can doubt that the author's prayers 
have been answered. 

His reputation as a hymn-writer has also extended far and wide. 
About thirty of his hymns are in common use. Joined with a strong 
grasp of his subject, true poetic feeling, and a pure rhythm, there is a 
soothing plaintiveness and individuality in his hymns which give them 
a distinct character of their own. 

His well known hymn, "Peace, perfect peace," is unrivaled as a 
hymn of consolation, and comes very near to "Lead Kindly Light" in 
combining "piety and poetry in the highest proportion." 

It was written after the author had listened to a sermon on the text, 
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, 
because he trusteth in Thee." 

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin? 
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. 

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed? 
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest. 

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round? 
On Jesus' bosom naught but calm is found. 

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away? 
In Jesus' keeping we are safe, and they. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 143 

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown? 
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne. 

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours? 
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers. 

It is enough: earth's struggles soon shall cease, 
And Jesus call us to heav'n's perfect peace. 

From his beautiful Communion hymn, beginning: 

Till He come: oh, let the words 
Linger on the trembling chords; 

we quote the second and third stanzas: 

When the weary ones we love 
Enter on their rest above, 
Seems the earth so poor and vast, 
All our life- joy overcast? 
Hush, be every murmur dumb; 
It is only — "Till He come." 

Clouds and conflicts round us press; 
Would we have our sorrows less? 
All the sharpness of the cross, 
All that tells the world is loss, 
Death and darkness, and the tomb, 
Only whisper — "Till He come." 

William Whiting (1825-1878). 

To William Whiting, choirmaster of Winchester, and author of sev- 
eral hymns, we are indebted for the most popular hymn for "those at 
sea." It has been wedded to a beautiful tune by Dr. Dykes, appropriately 
named "Melita" in commemoration of the shipwreck of St. Paul. When 
sung at sea, and in seaboard districts, in stormy weather, it "arrests and 
solemnizes a congregation in a very remarkable way." Following are 
the first and last stanzas: 

Eternal Father! strong to save, 
Whose arm doth bind the restless wave, 
Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep 
Its own appointed limits keep; 
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, 
For those in peril on the sea. 

O Trinity of love and power! 

Our brethren shield in danger's hour; 

From rock and tempest, fire and foe, 

Protect them wheresoe'er they go. 

Thus ever let there rise to Thiee 

Glad hymns of praise from land and sea. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Nineteenth Century. 



Tis love leads nature's choir, nor leads it wrong. 

Sweet and more sweet the grateful notes aspire : 
All nature joins in one harmonious song, 

And tells of love; for God has given the air. 

Vittoria Colonna. 




Rev. Lawrence Tuttiett (1825-1897). 

AWRENCE Tuttiett, son of John Tuttiett, a surgeon, was 
born at Cloyton, Devonshire, England. It was originally 
purposed that he should follow the medical profession, 
but abandoning it for the ministry, he took Holy Orders 
in 1848. For sixteen years he was vicar of Lea Marston, Warwick- 
shire, and for twenty-eight years clergyman of St. Andrews, Fife, 
Scotland. He was the author of several devotional works, and many 
excellent hymns. His hymns are characterized by deep earnestness, 
distinctness of thought, simplicity of language and smoothness of rhythm. 
Those for special services and seasons are of great merit. 
Very tender and beautiful is the hymn beginning: 

O Jesus, ever present, 

O Shepherd, ever kind, 
Thy very name is music, 

To ear, and heart, and mind. 
It woke my wond'ring childhood 

To muse on things above; 
It drew my harder manhood 

With cords of mighty love. 

His hymn on the coming of Christ the Judge, is a powerful and pathetic 
expression of the longing of many devout souls, through all the Christian 
era, for the second coming of Christ. Following are the first and second 
stanzas: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 145 

O quickly come, dread Judge of all; 

For awful though Thine Advent be, 
All shadows from the truth will fall, 

And falsehood die in sight of Thee : 
O quickly come : for doubt and fear 
Like clouds dissolve when Thou art near. 

O quickly come, great King of all; 

Reign all around us, and within; 
Let sin no more our souls enthrall, 

Let pain and sorrow die with sin: 
O quickly come : For Thou alone 
Canst make thy scattered people one. 

One of his most popular hymns is that for the New Year, of which 
the first two stanzas follow: 

Father, here we dedicate 

All our time to Thee, 

In whatever worldly state 

Thou wouldst have us be; 
Not from trouble, loss, or care 

Freedom would we claim; 
This alone shall be our prayer, 

"Glorify Thy Name." 

Can a child pretend to choose 

Where or how to live? 
Can a Father's love refuse 

What is best to give? 
More Thou grantest every day 

Than the best can claim; 
Nor withholdest aught that may 

"Glorify Thy Name." 

Very spiritual and inspiring is his earnest prayer for "light" expressed 
in the following stanzas : 

O grant us light, that we may know 

The wisdom Thou alone canst give; 
That truth may guide where'er we go, 

And virtue bless where'er we live. 

O grant us light that we may see 

Where error lurks in human lore, 
And turn our doubting minds to Thee, 

And love Thy simple word the more. 

O grant us light in grief and pain 

To lift our burdened hearts above, 
And count the very cross a gain, 

And bless our Father's hidden love. 

O grant us light, when soon or late 

All earthly scenes shall pass away, 
In Thee to find the open gate 

To deathless home and endless day. 



146 FAVORITE HYMNS 

There is a striking variety of subject and thought in Tuttiett's hymns, 
no two of those in common use being at all alike. Distinctly different 
from all the others is his rousing hymn, beginning: 

Go forward, Christian soldier, 

Beneath His banner true; 
The Lord Himself, thy Leader, 

Shall all Thy foes subdue. 
His love foretells thy trials, 

He knows thine hourly need; 
He can, with bread of heaven, 

Thy fainting spirit feed. 

Rev. John Ellerton, M. A. (1826-1893). 

John Ellerton, M. A., vicar of White Rothing, was a devoted clergy- 
man of the Church of England. He was a man of wide culture and win- 
ning personality, "always making the best of and doing the best for 
others, never thinking of himself." He is the author of several prose 
works. It is however, as a hymnologist, editor, hymn-writer and trans- 
lator, that he is most widely known. Matthew Arnold termed him "the 
greatest of living hymnologists." If not the "greatest," he is certainly 
one of the very greatest of modern hymnists. He was joint editor of 
an annotated edition of "Church Hymns," published in 1881, for which 
he prepared an admirable series of notes and illustrations. His original 
hymns number about fifty, and his translations from the Latin, ten or 
more. Nearly every one of these is in common use. He had at his com- 
mand a variety of subject and style; the thought is clear and plainly 
stated; the rhythm is good; the diction simple and elegant; the tone 
elevated and devotional in spirit. 

The best known of his hymns is that for Sunday evening, beginning: 

Saviour, again to Thy dear name we raise 
With one accord our parting hymn of praise; 
We stand to bless Thee ere our worship cease, 
Then, lowly kneeling, wait Thy word of peace. 

The grandest of his hymns is the one on the Crucifixion, beginning 
with the stanza : 

Throned upon the awful tree, 
King of grief, I watch with Thee; 
Darkness veils Thine anguished face, 
None its lines of woe can trace, 
None can tell what pangs unknown 
Hold thee silent and alone. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 147 

His fine hymn on "All live unto Him" is a powerful protest against 
the unworthy ideas of death and the future state, so widely prevalent 
and an assertion of the fact that life follows at once, and not after a long 
interval of sleep. Following are the first two stanzas: 

God of the living, in whose eyes, 
Unveiled Thy whole creation lies; 
All souls are Thine; we must not say 
That those are dead who pass away; 
From this our world of flesh set free, 
We know them living unto Thee. 

Released from earthly toil and strife, 

With Thee is hidden still their life; 

Thine are their thoughts, their works, their powers, 

All Thine, and yet most truly ours; 

For well we know, where'er they be, 

Our dead are living unto Thee. 

Very stirring and beautiful is his Sunday morning hymn: — 

This is the day of Light ! 

Let there be light today! 
O Dayspring, rise upon our night, 
And chase its gloom away. 

The assertion of the continuance of worship, linking together East 
and West in sacred song, is exceedingly fine in the hymn beginning, 

The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended, 

from which we quote the last three stanzas: 

As o'er each continent and island 
N%The dawn leads on another day, 
The voice of prayer is never silent 
Nor dies the strain of praise away. 

The sun, that bids us rest, is waking 
Our brethren 'neath the western sky, 

And hour by hour fresh lips are making 
Thy wondrous doings heard on high. 

So be it, Lord; Thy throne shall never, 
~-Like earth's proud empires, pass away; 
But stand, and rule, and grow forever, 
Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway. 

One of the great funeral hymns of the Church is his hymn, beginning, — 

Now the laborer's task is o'er, 
^Now the battle day is past; 
Now upon the farther shore 



148 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Lands the voyager at last. 
Father, in Thy gracious keeping 

Leave we now Thy servant sleeping. 

Among Ellerton's other hymns in common use are: 

"The hours of day are over; " 
"When the day of toil is done;" 
"Again the morn of gladness;" 
"Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness! 



Mrs. Elizabeth Charles (1828-1897). 

Mrs. Elizabeth Charles was the daughter of John Rundle, M. P. Her 
husband was Andrew Paton Charles, Barrister at Law. 

Mrs. Charles has enriched our sacred literature with many productions 
in prose and verse. She is the authoress of "The Schonberg Cotta Family," 
and many other stories of a religious historical type. She has also made 
valuable contributions to Hymnology, including original hymns and trans- 
lations from the Latin and German. These are given in her book, "The 
Voice of Christian Life in Song," and her volume of poems, "The Three 
Awakings." In her rendering of one of the hymns of the Venerable 
Bede— 

"A hymn of glory let us sing," 

we have an example of her admirable translations. Her original hymns 
are not widely known, but their style and character may be inferred 
from the following poem, which, though not in the strictest sense a hymn, 
"is so rousing, so full of a large sympathy," that both Bishop Bickersteth 
and W. Garrett Horder "could not resist the temptation to include it" 
in hymnals which they compiled : — 

Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? rise and share it with another, 
And through all the years of famine it shall serve thee and thy 
brother. 

Love divine will fill thy storehouse, or thy handful still renew; 
Scanty fare for one will often make a royal feast for two. 

For the heart grows rich in giving; all its wealth is living grain; 
Seeds which mildew in the garner, scattered, fill with gold the plain. 

Is thy burden hard and heavy? do thy steps drag wearily? 

Help to bear thy brother's burdens; God will bear both it and thee. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 149 

Numb and weary on the mountains, wouldst thou sleep amidst 

the snow? 
Chafe that frozen form beside thee, and together both shall glow. 

Art thou stricken in life's battle? many wounded round thee moan; 
Lavish on their wounds thy balsams, and that balm shall heal 
thine own. 

Is the heart a well left empty? None but God its void can fill; 
Nothing but a ceaseless fountain can its ceaseless longings still. 

Is the heart a living power? self-entwined, its strength sinks low; 
It can only live in loving, and by serving love will grow. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane (1828-1897). 

Elizabeth C. Clephane, daughter of Andrew Clephane, sheriff of Fife, 
was a member of the Church of Scotland. She had a vivid imagination, 
from her childhood was always fond of poetry, and commenced writing 
at an early age. Her first hymns, including "The Ninety and Nine," 
were written for "The Children's Hour," and in 1872-74 were republished 
along with several others in the "Family Treasury," then edited by the 
Rev. William Arnot, under the title "Breathings on the Border." The 
following introduction was written for them by Rev. Mr. Arnot: 

"These lines express the experience, the hopes and the longings of 
a young Christian lately released. Written on the very edge of this life, 
with the border land fully in the view of faith, they seem to us footsteps 
printed on the sands of Time, where these sands touch the ocean of Etern- 
ity. These footprints of one whom the Good Shepherd led through the 
wilderness into rest, may, with God's blessing, contribute to comfort 
and direct succeeding pilgrims." 

Miss Clephane's little poem, which was first popularized as a hymn 
by Mr. Sankey, beginning: 

"There were ninety and nine that safely lay 
In the shelter of the fold; " 

will be readily recalled without further quotation. Six years after this 
poem first appeared in the "Children's Hour," it was copied into the 
"Christian Age" of London, in the columns of which Mr. Ira D. Sankey 
first saw it, while in the train on his way to Edinburgh to attend a gospel 
meeting, in 1874. The paper in which he found it had been left on the 
seat by some former passenger. The subject of the meeting to be held 
that evening was "The Good Shepherd," and Mr. Sankey was searching 



150 FAVORITE HYMNS 



for an appropriate hymn. When he came across "The Ninety and Nine," 
he was so delighted with the poem that he resolved to sing it that even- 
ing, though he knew he would be obliged to improvise a tune for it. He 
sang it at the close of an impressive service, the tune coming to him as 
he went on. At the end of the meeting Mr. Moody said to him, "Wherever 
did you get that hymn?" "I got it in answer to prayer," was the reply. 

Miss Clephane died a short time after her little poem appeared in 
print. She never lived to hear it sung as a hymn, or to receive the thanks 
of the hundreds who have been led to Christ under the singing of it by 
Mr. Sankey. 

Following are the first and last stanzas of another beautiful hymn 
by Miss Clephane: 

Beneath the Cross of Jesus, 

I fain would take my stand, 
The shadow of a mighty Rock 

Within a weary land; 
A home within the wilderness, 

A rest upon the way, 
From the burning of the noon-tide heat, 

And the burden of the day. 

I take, O Cross, thy shadow, 

For my abiding-place : 
I ask no other sunshine than 

The sunshine of His face; 
Content to let the world go by, 

To know no gain nor loss, 
My sinful self my only shame, 

My glory all the Cross. 

Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould (1834 ). 

Sabina Baring-Gould was born at Exeter, England, in 1834; was 
graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, in 1854: was ordained and 
bacame curate of Horbury in 1864; and from 1867 was incumbent of 
Dalton, until Mr. Gladstone appointed him rector of East Mersea, in 1871. 
On the death of his father in 1872 he succeeded to his estate at Lew- 
Trenchard, Devonshire, which has been the family seat for over three 
hundred years. The rectorate of Lew-Trenchard is what in England is 
called a family living and upon the death of its incumbent in 1881, Mr. 
Baring-Gould, who was squire, and Lord of the Manor, became also rector 
of the parish by his own appointment. He is an exceedingly versatile 
and prolific author, with a variety of gifts and accomplishments, and is 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 151 

"not only squire and rector, but also theologian, historian, antiquarian 
novelist and poet." He has written many volumes of sermons, and other 
works on religious subjects of a more learned character. Of these, the 
best known,p3rhaps, are "The Lives of the Saints," in fifteen volumes, 
and "The Origin and Development of Religious Belief," in two. He is 
also the author of many volumes dealing with manners and customs, 
legaaiary and folk lore, antiquities and out-of-the-way information, re- 
quiring wide research. Of these, probably the most widely known is 
his "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." In England he is, also, one of 
the most popular of living novelists. 

His hymn writing is small in quantity, in comparison with the great 
volume of his other achievements, but he has written many carols, and 
a number of hymns which are of a very high order. His fine rendering 
of the Danish hymn by Ingemann, beginning with the stanza: 

Through the night of doubt and sorrow 

Onward goes the pilgrim band, 
Singing songs of expectation, 

Marching to the promised land. 
Clear before us through the darkness 

Gleams and burns the guiding light; 
Brother clasps the hand of brother, 

Stepping fearless through the night; 

is one of his three popular hymns which are found in nearly all modern 
hymnals. Probably no evening hymn is oftener sung, at the present 
time, than his lovely hymn for children, beginning: 

Now the day is over, 

Night is drawing nigh; 
Shadows of the evening 

Steal across the sky. 

Jesus, give the weary 

Calm and sweet repose; 
With Thy tenderest blessing 

May our eyelids close. 

But the most popular and often-used hymn is, undoubtedly, the 
stirring processional : — 

Onward, Christian soldiers, 

Marching as to war, 
With the cross of Jesus 

Going on before. 

This hymn was written in 1865, and gradually worked its way into 
use by being included in several hymnals during the next ten years. A 



152 FAVORITE HYMNS 



most effective means of securing its continued general use was the appear- 
ance in the "Musical Times" for December, 1871, of the stirring tune 
written for it by Arthur S. Sullivan, to which it has been wedded ever 
since. 

Henry M. Stanley, in his "Through the Dark Continent," gives a 
touching illustration of the influence of song when the mind is troubled 
and depressed. 

When Mr. Stanley started on his long and perilous journey he was 
accompanied by three brave young Englishmen — Francis Pocock, his 
brother, and a friend of theirs. Of the former, Mr. Stanley says: "Frank 
Pocock was seldom idle, and while he was at work his fine voice broke 
out into song, or some hymn such as he was accustomed to sing in Rochester 
church. Joyous and light-hearted as a linnet, Frank indulged forever in 
song, raising his sweet voice in melody, lightening my heart and for the 
time dispelling my anxieties. In my troubles his face was my cheer; 
his English voice recalled me to my aims, and out of his brave, bold heart? 
he uttered, in my own language, words of comfort to my thirsty ears." 

Frank's brother died of the deadly typhus, January 18, 1875, and 
not long afterward their friend and companion succumbed to the pesti- 
lential region through which they were traveling. "On January 28, 
1877," Mr. Stanley says, "after a period of twenty-two days of desperate- 
labors, during the nights and days of which we had been beset by the 
perverse cannibals and insensate savages, who made the islands amid 
the cataracts their fastnesses, and having passed the last of the Stanley 
falls, we are once again upon a magnificent stream (The Livingstone 
river) whose broad and grey-brown waters woo us with their mystery. 
I thought even Frank was half affected by the sudden cessation of trouble 
— giving the party thinking time to reflect upon their situation — for his 
voice was heard in a dolorous, sad strain, of which the words of the first 
two stanzas were as follows:" 



"The home land, the fair land, 
Refuge for all distressed, 

Where pain and sin ne'er enter in, 
But all is peace and rest. 

"The homeland! I long to meet 
Those who have gone before; 

The weeping eyes, and weary feet, 
Rest on that happy shore." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 153 

"Frank, my dear fellow, you will make everybody cry with such 
tunes as those; choose some heroic tune, whose notes will make us all 
feel afire, and drive our canoes down stream as though they were driven 
by steam." 

"All right sir," he replied, with a bright, cheerful face, and sang the 
following! 

"Brightly gleams our banner, 

Pointing to the sky, 
Waving wanderers onward 
To their home on high. 

"Journeying o'er the desert, 

Gladly thus we pray, 
And with hearts united 

Take our homeward way. ' ' 

"Ah, Frank, it is not the heavenward way you mean, is it? I should 
think you would prefer the homeward way, for that is the way I pray 
to be permitted to lead you." 

"How do you like this," he asked (and he sang Charlotte Elliott's 
hymn beginning) : 

My God, my Father, while I stray 
Far from my home on life's rough way, 
O teach me from my heart to say, 
Thy will be done. 

"Frank, you are thinking too much of the poor fellows we have 
lately lost. Sing, my dear Frank, your best song." 
He replied by singing: — 

Onward Christian soldiers, 

Marching as to war, 
With the cross of Jesus 

Going on before. 

Those who have read "Through the Dark Continent" will doubtless 
recall the pathetic story of Frank's death, and the unutterable grief of 
Stanley from the loss of this dear friend, leaving him alone with his sor- 
rowing and disheartened dark-skinned companions. Frank's grave was 
in the dark waters of the Livingstone, but the voice which had so often 
cheered his companions in "Darkest Africa" was thenceforth to join in 
the songs of "the happy band" in the "homeland," 

"Where pain and sin ne'er enter in, 
But all is peace and rest." 

Mr. Baring-Gould is so many-sided a man, and has done so much 



154 FAVORITE HYMNS 



work of so many different kinds, achieving enough to establish the fame 
of at least two distinguished men, there seems to be an amusing fitness 
in his compound name, and in the fact that he is sometimes indexed 
among the B's for Baring, and sometimes among the G's for Gould. 

Folliott Sandford Pierpoint, M. A. (1835 ). 

Folliott Sandford Pierpoint of Bath, England, was educated at 
Queen's College, Cambridge, graduating with classical honors in 1871. 
He is the author of several hymns, but is best known by his delightful 
hymn of thankfulness, beginning: 

For the beauty of the earth, 

For the beauty of the skies, 
For the love which from our birth 

Over and around us lies; 
Father, unto Thee we raise 
This, our sacrifice of praise. 

For the beauty of each hour 

Of the day and of the night, 
Hill and vale, and tree and flower, 

Sun and moon, and stars of fight; 
Father, unto Thee we raise 
This, our sacrifice of praise. 




Frances Ridley Havergal. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Nineteenth Century. 



Wake, wake your harps to sweetest songs ! 
In praise of Him to whom belongs 

All praise; join hearts and voices. 
Forevermore, Christ in Thee, — 
Thee, all in all of love to me, — 

My grateful heart rejoices. 

Rev. Philip Nicolai, D. D. 




Frances Ridley Havergal (1S36-1879). 

N THE quiet inland village of Astley, Worcestershire, 
England, William Henry Havergal, poet and musician, 
as well as priest, faithfully ministered to his small rural 
congregation for more than twenty years; and in the 
adjacent rectory, pleasantly sequestered amid vines and 
flowers and overshadowing trees, he wrote sermons, hymns and music, 
and reared six active, clever children, the youngest of whom was Frances 
Ridley Havergal, born December 14th, 1836. As remembered by loving 
friends, she was a child of rare grace and beauty; fair-corn plexioned, 
sunny-haired, with an expression at once sweet and vivacious, and a 
child of extreme mental precocity, as shown in reading easy books at 
three years old, and beginning her first manuscript verses at seven. 

In 1845, Mr. Havergal, having received an appointment to the Rec- 
tory of St. Nicholas, and become a canon of the Cathedral, removed to 
the city of Worcester. Here, Frances, when scarcely ten years old, began 
the charitable and missionary labors with which so large a space of her 
after life was filled, by teaching a Sunday School class of still younger 
children, and organizing herself and a favorite playmate into a "Flannel 
Petticoat Society." The story of this period of her life is pleasantly 
told in "The Four Happy Days," one of her few published books for 
children. 



156 FAVORITE HYMNS 



She was educated at a boarding school, first in England, afterward 
in Germany. At the former, without attempting to fix any date of con- 
version, she began to "have conscious faith and hope in Christ." After 
leaving school she threw herself enthusiastically into an advanced course 
of study, and through all her after life she strove to slake her thirst for 
knowledge at every available fount within reach. She studied — in most 
cases mastered — French, German, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. 
She taught herself harmonics by reading a chapter from a "Treatise," at 
night, and mentally working out the exercises on her pillow. 

From her father, who declined the chair of music at Oxford, Miss 
Havergal inherited such decided musical talent that she at one time 
thought of making it her life-vocation, being encouraged thereto by 
Hiller, whose judgment she sought upon her works. 

She was an acceptable solo singer, her voice having that sweet and 
sympathetic quality which satisfies both the critical and the uncultured 
ear; she wrote songs and hymn-tunes, adapted to her own words and 
those of others; she acted as organist, at need; she assisted in the editing 
of the hymnal, "Songs of Grace and Glory;" and, after her father's death, 
she took up his unfinished work, preparing "Havergal's Psalmody" for 
the press, and contributing to its contents. She could play from memory 
all of Handel's music, and much of Mendelssohn's and Beethoven's. Her 
rendering of the "Moonlight Sonata" was pronounced "perfect": — how 
she attained to such perfection is told in her poem of the same name, 
which, like all her works, is largely biographical. In her first conscious- 
ness of the power to create melody and harmony, as well as to interpret 
them, she says that she forgot the Giver, and found such delight in the 
gift that "other things paled before it." She also alludes to the "delicious 
delusion" of public applause; but in better moments she prays that the 
gift of song may be withdrawn if it is really a snare and a hindrance, that 
she "may be made white at any cost." In good time the prayer was 
answered, not by withdrawing the gift, but by enabling her so to consecrate 
it to the Master's service that she could write: 

"Literal 'singing for Jesus' is to me, somehow, the most personal 
and direct commission I hold from my beloved Master, and my opportuni- 
ties for it are often most curious, and have been greatly blessed; every 
line in my little poem 'Singing for Jesus,' is from personal experience." 

Her first formal debut as a poetess was about 1860, in the columns 
of "Good Words"; thenceforward she went on, adding grace to grace 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 157 

and strength to strength of poetic skill and fervor till capable of the 
sustained flight of "The Thoughts of God," and the varied melody and 
deep insight of "Loyal Responses." Many of the latter have become 
household words not only in human homes, but in sacred temples; more 
than once their author knew the awed blissfulness of hearing her own 
hymns and tunes sung to the praise of Him who inhabiteth eternity. 

Her works are so well known, it is scarcely necessary to say that she 
wrote with extraordinary ease and fluency; but the secret of her success 
is best told in her own words: 

"I have a curious vivid sense, not merely of my verse faculty in gen- 
eral being given me, but also of every separate poem or hymn, nay every 
line, being given. ... I can never set myself to write verse. I 
believe my King suggests a thought and whispers me a musical line or 
two, and then I look up and thank Him delightedly, and go on with it. 
That is how the hymns and poems come. Just now there is silence." 

At one time there was a long silence — about five years. But the 
power returned as suddenly as it went; one night a poem shot into her 
mind, "Minerva fashion, full-grown." "All my best poems have come 
in that way," she says. Few have more faithfully acted out the aspi- 
ration she expressed in one of her hymns, "Always, only for the King.'' 
Her writings in prose have a large circulation, but she will be best and 
longest known by her poems. Their power to soften, to soothe, to in- 
spire, to warn, to uplift, is acknowledged by thousands of loving readers, 
who will give them a high place in the religious poetry of the age. 

But her greatest achievement, and her best legacy, is her consecrated 
life and character, wrought out by experiences which fitted her for the 
work, of which she says: 

"And the songs that echo longest, 
Deepest, fullest, truest, strongest, 
With your life blood you must write." 

Her widely known "Consecration Hymn": 

"Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee," 

was written in an outburst of joy at having been permitted to be instru- 
mental in the conversion of dear friends. 

"Tell it out among the heathen," 

was written, both words and music, one Sunday morning, when she was 



158 FAVORITE HYMNS 



unable to go to church. "Her friends left her in bed, but found her at 
the piano, singing her new possession in a brisk, ringing time, that was 
really electrifying." 

The hymn beginning: 

I gave my life for thee, 

My precious blood I shed, 
That thou might 'st ransomed be, 

And quickened from the dead. 
I gave my life for thee; 
What hast thou given for Me? 

was founded upon a motto placed under a picture of Christ, in the study 
of a German divine, "This I did for thee, what doest thou for Me?" It 
is said Zinzendorf was first taught love to the Saviour by reading this 
motto. In answer to inquiries regarding this hymn, she wrote: 

"I scribbled it in pencil on the back of a circular, in a few minutes, 
and then read it over and thought, 'Well, this is not poetry, anyhow! I 
won't trouble to copy this out.' So I reached out my hand to put it in 
the fire! a sudden impulse made me draw it back; I put it, crumpled and 
singed, into my pocket. Soon after I went to see a dear old woman in 
an alms house. She began talking to me, as she always did, about her 
dear Saviour, and I thought I would see if she, a simple old woman, would 
care for my verses, which I felt sure nobody else would care to read. So 
I read them to her, and she was so delighted with them that, when I 
went back, I copied them out, and kept them, and now the Master has 
sent them out in all directions. I have seen tears while they have been 
sung at mission services, and have heard of them being really blessed to 
many." 

Referring to this hymn, she says, "It was, I think, the very first 
thing I ever wrote which could be called a hymn" (written in 1859). 
From this humble beginning she continued her "Ministry of Song," — 

Singing for Jesus, our Master and Friend, 
Telling His love and His marvellous grace; 

Love from eternity, love without end, 

Love for the loveless, the sicful, the base. 

Singing for Jesus, and trying to win 

Many to love Him, and join in the song; 
Calling the weary and wandering in, 

Rolling the chorus of gladness along. 

Singing for Jesus, our Shepherd and Guide, 
Singing for gladness of heart that He gives; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 159 

Singing for wonder and praise that He died, 
Singing for blessing and joy that He lives. 

Singing for Jesus, Oh, singing for joy! 

Thus will we praise Him and tell out His love, 
Till He shall call us to brighter employ, 

Singing for Jesus forever above. 

After a life of abundant and exhausting labors Miss Havergal was 
called to "brighter employ" at the age of forty-three. When told of the 
serious nature of her illness, she answered, "If I am really going, it is 
too good to be true." She was often heard murmuring, "So beautiful to 
go." At the last she tried to sing; but after one sweet, high note, her 
voice failed; soon to join in the grand chorus of the redeemed, — 

"Singing for Jesus forever above." 

Among Miss Havergal' s other beautiful and helpful hymns in com- 
mon use are the following: 

"Lord, speak to me, that I may speak;" 
"Jesus, Master, whose I am;" 
"True-hearted, whole-hearted;" 
"Who is on the Lord's side?" 
"Thou art coming, O my Saviour." 

William Chatterton Dix (183 7-1898). 

William Chatterton Dix was a highly gifted hymn-writer. His con- 
tributions to hymnody are numerous, and many of his compositions 
rank high among modern hymns. He was for more than thirty years a 
writer of sacred verse, and among English laymen of his generation there 
are none whose contributions are so well known and so valuable. The 
most popular is his beautiful Epiphany hymn, beginning: 

As with gladness men of old, 
Did the guiding star behold; 
As with joy they hailed its light, 
Leading onward, beaming bright; 
So, most gracious Lord, may we 
Evermore be led to Thee. 

One of the most perfect and melodious of hymns is his musical Har- 
vest hymn. We quote the whole hymn, as it seems too perfect for abridg- 
ment: 

To Thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise 

In hymns of adoration, 
To Thee bring sacrifice of praise 



160 FAVORITE HYMNS 



With shouts of exultation; 
Bright robes of gold the fields adorn, 

The hills with joy are ringing, 
The valleys stand so thick with corn 

That even they are singing. 

And now, on this our festal day, 

Thy bounteous Hand confessing, 
Upon Thine altars, Lord, we lay 

The first-fruits of Thy blessing. 
By thee the souls of men are fed 

With gifts of grace supernal, 
Thou, who dost give us earthly bread, 

Give us the Bread Eternal. 

We bear the burden of the day, 

And often toil seems dreary; 
But labor ends with sunset ray, 

And rest comes for the weary; 
May we, the angel-reaping o'er, 

Stand at the last accepted, 
Christ's golden sheaves forevermore 

To garners bright elected. 

Oh, blessed is that land of God, 

Where saints abide forever; 
Where golden fields spread far and broad, 

Where flows the crystal river: 
The strains of all its holy throng 

With ours today are blending; 
Thrice blessed is that harvest-song 

Which never hath an ending. 

Very earnest and tender in his hymn of invitation, worthy to be 
ranked with Bonar's "I heard the voice of Jesus say": — 

"Come unto Me, ye weary, 

And I will give you rest/' 
O blessed voice of Jesus, 

Which comes to hearts oppressed. 
It tells of benediction, 

Of pardon, grace, and peace, 
Of joy that hath no ending, 

Of love which cannot cease. 

' And whosoever cometh 

I will not cast him out." 
O patient love of Jesus, 

Which drives away our doubt; 
Which calls us very sinners, 

Unworthy though we be 
Of love so free and boundless, 

To come, dear Lord, to Thee! 
Among Mr. Dix's other hymns in common use are: 
"O Thou, the eternal Son of God;" 
"Alleluia! sing to Jesus." 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 161 

Rev. Samuel John Stone, M. A. (1839-1901). 

Samuel John Stone, son of the Bev. William Stone, M. A., was born 
at Whitmore, Staffordshire, England. His poetical works are numerous 
and he is the author of about fifty hymns and translations. Several of 
his hymns have a wide popularity. In 1866 Mr. Stone published a small 
volume entitled "Lyra Fidelium, Twelve Hymns on the Apostles' Creed." 
The hymn by which he is best known is the one on Article X, "The For- 
giveness of Sins." Following are four of the eight verses of this pathetic 
hymn of penitence and confession: 

Weary of earth and laden with my sin, 
I look at heaven and long to enter in, 
But there no evil thing may find a home; 
And yet I hear a voice that bids me 'Come.' 

So vile I am, how dare I hope to stand 

In the pure glory of that holy land? 

Before the whiteness of that throne appear? 

Yet there are hands stretched out to draw me near. 

It is the voice of Jesus that I hear, 

His are the hands stretched out to draw me near, 

And His the blood that can for all atone, 

And set me faultless there before the throne. 

Yea, Thou wilt answer for me, righteous Lord, 
Thine all the merits, mine the great reward; 
Thine the sharp thorns, and mine the golden crown, 
Mine the life won, and Thine the life laid down. 

Mr. Stone's hymn on Article IX of the Creed — "The Holy Catholic 
Church, the Communion of Saints" — is the familiar hymn, beginning: 

The Church's one foundation 

Is Jesus Christ her Lord; 
She is His new creation 

By water and the word; 
From heaven He came and sought her 

To be His holy bride; 
With His own blood He bought her, 

And for her life He died. 

His earnest desire for strength, and the "Saviour's armor," for the 
Christ-like work of "seeking and saving the lost," is beautifully expressed 
in the hymn, beginning: 

O Thou before whose presence 

Naught evil may come in, 
Yet who dost look in mercy 



162 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Down on this world of sin; 

give us noble purpose 

To set the sin-bound free, 

And Christ-like tender pity 

To seek the lost for Thee. 

Equal in merit, though not so familiar, is his rousing hymn on the 
closing of the year, beginning: 

The old year's long campaign is o'er, 

Behold a new begun; 
Not yet is closed the holy war, 

Not yet the triumph won. 
Out of his still and deep repose 

We hear the old year say: 
"Go forth again to meet your foes, 

Ye children of the day!" 

The author's kinship with all tried and tempted souls is disclosed in 
his pathetic hymn, in which the " shadows" persistently "vanish at the 
dawning ray" of hope. Following are three stanzas of this hymn: 

Dark is the night that overhangs my soul, 
The mists are thick that through the valley roll, 
But as I tread, I cheer my heart and say, 
"When the day breaks the shadows flee away." 

I bear the lamp my Master gave to me, 
Burning and shining must it ever be, 
And I must tend it till the night decay, — 
"Till the day break, and shadows flee away." 

He will be with me in the awful hour 
When the last foe shall come in blackest power; 
And He will hear me when at last I pray — 
"Let the day break, the shadows flee away." 

Rev. George Matheson, D. D. 

George Matheson was born in Glasgow in 1842, and although deprived 
of his eyesight in his youth he passed a brilliant course at the University 
of Edinburgh, where he graduated M. A. in 1862. In 1868 he became the 
parish minister at Innellan; and subsequently at St. Bernard's, Edinburgh, 
where he was known and esteemed by the people as their most original 
preacher. His poetical works were collected and published in 1890 as 
"Sacred Songs." He is also the author of several important prose works 
but he is most widely known as author of the favorite hymn from which 
we quote the first and last two stanzas: 

O love that wilt not let me go, 

1 rest my weary soul on Thee; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 163 

I give Thee back the life I owe 
That in Thine ocean depths its flow j 
May richer, fuller be. 

joy that seekest me through pain, 
I cannot close my heart to Thee; 

1 trace the rainbow through the rain, 
And feel the promise is not vain 

That morn shall tearless be. 

cross that liftest up my head, 

I dare not ask to fly from Thee; 

1 lay in dust life's glory dead, 

And from the ground there blossoms red 
Life that shall endless be. 

The hymn was "the fruit of the most severe mental suffering" en- 
dured by the author, and was truly an inspiration, the whole having been 
written and completed in about five minutes, and never retouched or 
corrected by the author. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



American Hymns. 



Then let me sing, while yet I may, like him God loved, — the sweet- 
toned Psalmist, 
Who found in harp and holy lay the charm that keeps the spirit calmest. 

Rev. G. W. Bethune, D. D. 




HROUGHOUT the Middle Ages, the Bible was, as a whole, 
except to the clergy, a sealed book. But the Psalms 
were permitted to be in the hands of laymen. The 
Psalms in Latin were consecrated by centuries of use in 
public worship, but they were chanted by priests or 
choristers, and to the people they were for the most part unintelligible. 
The first version of the Psalter in prose was made by Tyndall and Cover- 
dale. This version, corrected by Cranmer and his colleagues, was put 
forth in the Bishop's Bible of 1541. Translated into the vernacular 
language, the Psalms seemed to gain their full power, answering every 
need, adapting themselves to all spiritual conditions. 

During the period of the Reformation, as the fierce battle between 
Roman Catholic and Protestant swayed backwards and forwards, the 
note of encouragement, comfort, or deliverance sounds clear and high 
for combatants on either side, in the verses of the Psalms. In the strength 
of the Psalms, martyrs went to the stake, mounted the scaffold, or endured 
the rack. Men, women, and children, dragged to gaol, sang Psalms 
along the road, and, as in the days of Paul and Silas, dungeons resounded 
with earnest praise of God, clothed in the sublime yet familiar language 
of the Psalms. From Jerome's cave at Bethlehem to Raleigh's dungeon 
in the Tower their influence passes without breach of continuity, although, 
in the lapse of twelve centuries, scarcely any aspect of human life remained 
unchanged — except that human nature to which they remain eternally 
true. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 165 

The earliest of the metrical versions of the Psalms in the popular 
tongue was the celebrated one into French, of Clement Marot, who trans- 
lated fifty Psalms, two being added by Calvin, and the rest by Theodore 
Beza. Goudimel, the first musician of his age set these to music, drawing 
the airs from the popular songs of that time. This became the book of 
song in all French speaking countries, and aided greatly in the spread 
of' the doctrines of the Reformation. The Psalms were identified with 
the everyday life of the Huguenots. On the battlefield, and in the dis- 
cipline of the camp, the Psalms held their place. With a Psalm they 
repelled the charge or delivered the assault. In vain was the chanting 
of the Psalms proscribed. Equally in vain was it to burn the books by 
the hands of executioners, or to thrust the pages into the gaping wounds 
of the dying. Colporteurs risked their lives in carrying to the remotest 
corners of Protestant France copies of Marot's version of the Psalms, 
printed so small that they could be readily concealed in the clothes of 
refugees. • 

The meetings of the proscribed and persecuted Huguenots were 
summoned by the singing of a Psalm; in woods and caverns, in dungeons, 
in exile in America, the Psalms still sounded from the lips of the sturdy 
Protestants. The Psalms sustained the courage of the martyrs in the 
midst of torture, and of those who were condemned to the living death 
of the galleys. 

To the Puritans of the seventeenth century, the Psalter was the 
book of books. Its words were fixed in the memories and rooted in the 
hearts of the people. To gain liberty of worship and of Psalm-singing, 
men and women crossed the seas, seeking in the New World the freedom 
that was denied them in the Old. 

To the singing of Psalms the sails of the Mayflower were set to catch 
the winds that wafted the Pilgrim Fathers to the white sandbanks of 
Cape Cod. 

"Not as the conqueror comes, 

They, the true-hearted came; 
Not with roll of the stirring drums, 

And the trumpet that sings of fame; 
Not as the flying come, 

In silence and in fear, — 
They shook the depths of the desert gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 

" Amidst the storm they sang, 
And the stars heard, and the sea; 



166 FAVORITE HYMNS 



And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthem of the free. 
The ocean eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam 
And the rocking pines of the forest roared — 

This was their welcome home! ; ' 

To the music of Psalms were laid the foundations of the United 
States. In the language of the Psalms the early progress of the first 
colony is recorded. In 1787, it was to the first verse of the 127th Psalm 
that Benjamin Franklin appealed, when speaking before the Convention 
assembled to frame a Constitution for the United States of America. 
In his address, as recorded, occurs this passage; 

"I have lived for a long time (81 years), and the longer I live the 
more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs 
of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, 
is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been 
assured, Sir, in the sacred writing, that 'Except the Lord build the house, 
they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this, and I also believe 
that without His concurring aid we shall proceed in this political building 
no better than the builders of Babel. I therefore beg leave to move 
that, henceforth, prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven and its 
blessing on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning 
before we proceed to business." 

For many centuries " The hopes and fears of all the years," the peni- 
tence, prayers, and praise of the Church found their truest and noblest 
expression in the Scriptural, or metrical, versions of the Psalms. 

"In Salem also is his tabernacle" (Ps. 76:2) were the words which 
suggested to John Endicott's company the name of their first settlement. 
At the Sabbath services, both in Salem and Plymouth, the Psalms were 
sung without music, from the version of Henry Ainsworth of Amsterdam. 
But it was not long before the Puritan divines had prepared their own 
version, and the third book printed in America was the Bay Psalm Book, 
published by Stephen Day (1630-40). Till the end of the eighteenth 
century the Psalms were exclusively sung in the churches and chapels of 
America. 

The first period of psalmody — from the landing of the Puritans to 
the Revolution — may be called the rude age of psalmody, in which the 
version of the psalms was in the words as they were given by Puritan 
writers, and which were sung to a few heavy, monotonous English chords, 
such as that sect preferred to use, without the aid of instruments, and 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 167 

without the help of female voices, for the most part. After the revolution 
choirs became common. They were formed as the custom of "lining out" 
the psalm, or "deaconing out," as some called it, was done away with. 
This custom, which was established in England in 1644 for the benefit 
of those unable to read, was practiced in churches in New England for 
many years, and was not discontinued without some severe and pro- 
tracted struggles. About 1790 this practice had been pretty generally 
discontinued. 

The first collection of metrical Psalms in use in America was the 
celebrated "Bay Psalm Book," or "New England version," published in 
1640. This w T as revised in 1757 by Thomas Prince, but was soon super- 
seded by "Tate and Brady's Version." A few years later a supplement 
of hymns, chiefly Watts', was added to this version, and between 1750 
and 1800 many editions of "Tate and Brady's Version with Supplement 
of Hymns" were printed at Boston. Towards the end of the 18th century 
many editions of Dr. Watts' "Psalms and Hymns" were published, in 
some of which the Psalms were amended by Joel Barlow in 1785, and by 
Timothy Dwight in 1800. After this time the Metrical Psalms were 
issued, with hymns appended. But as time went on, the Psalms fell 
more and more into the background, and hymns became prominent. 

At the end of the seventeenth century hymn-singing was almost 
unknown in England, and not until a century later did hymns come 
into general use in the churches of America. Thus has the heritage of 
American hymnody come to the people of this country, freighted with 
many associations with human history — the priceless, sacred fruitage of 
all the ages. 

The hymns used in America have been chiefly drawn from the great 
store of English hymns, hardly a tenth part being of native origin. Of 
the one hundred hymns, by known authors, in W. T. Stead's recent book 
"Hymns that have Helped," only ten are by American writers. But 
the number of American hymns is constantly increasing, and their quality 
is accredited by the fact that many American hymns are now included 
in English collections. 

Dr. John Julian, in his synopsis of American hymn-writers, gives the 
names of 212 authors. Only the most prominent among them will be 
introduced in this series, and they may be most conveniently grouped 
under the denominations to which they belong. As the earliest author 
mentioned was a Congregationalist, that church should be first in order. 



168 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Rev. Mather Byles, D. D. (1706-1788). 

The first American hymn-writer appears to have been Mather Byles, 
D. D. He was educated at Harvard, became an eminent Congregational 
minister of Boston, and for his time and place, an accomplished scholar. 
He corresponded with the wits and literati of England, and his sympathies 
were with the Tories in the Revolution. His Toryism brought him into 
trouble, causing him, in his own words, to be "guarded, regarded, and 
disregarded." His Sermons and Poems were published at various dates. 
His " Judgment" hymn: 

When wild confusion wrecks the air, 

And tempests rend the skies; 
Whilst blended ruin, clouds and fire 

In harsh disorder rise; — 

Safe in my Saviour's love I'll stand, 

And strike a tuneful song; 
My harp all trembling in my hand, 

And all inspired my tongue, 

is included in the "Plymouth Collection" and several other older col- 
lections, but is not found in recent hymnals. 

Rev. Nathan Strong (1748-18 16). 

Nathan Strong was born in Coventry, Conn., in 1748. He took the 
valedictory at Yale in 1769, over a future president of the college, Timothy 
Dwight. He was a tutor in the college in 1772, and in 1773 he accepted 
a call to the First Congregational Church of Hartford, Conn., where he 
continued to labor until his death on Christmas-day, 1816. His services 
to American Hymnody, as the principal editor of the "Hartford Selection," 
1799, have been very great. As in that selection the authors' names 
were not given, his numerous contributions thereto cannot be identified. 
One of the best known of his certified hymns is the one entitled, "A Thanks- 
giving Hymn," of which the first two stanzas follow: 

Swell the anthem, raise the song; 
Praises to our God belong; 
Saints and angels join to sing 
Praises to the heavenly King. 

Blessings from his lib'ral hand 
Flow around this happy land : 
Kept by Him no foes annoy; 
Peace and freedom we enjoy. 




Timothy Dwight. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 169 

Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D. (1752-1817). 

Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Mass., May 14, 1752. 
His mother was a daughter of Jonathan Edwards. He entered Yale 
College at the age of thirteen, graduated four years later, and was a tutor 
there from 1771 to 1777, when he resigned to become a chaplain in the 
Revolutionary army. He next became a pastor at Greenfield, Conn., 
where he also taught in an academy, till his appointment in 1795 as Presi- 
dent of Yale College, which position he held until his death, Jan. 11, 1817. 
He was one of the greatest theologians of his generation. His "System 
of Theology" had a wide circulation in Great Britain as well as in America. 
He was a man of vast acquirements, though for nearly forty years, owing 
to defective eye-sight, the result of smallpox, he was unable to read con- 
secutively for more than fifteen minutes out of the twenty-four hours, 
and this effort caused him intense pain. For this reason he was obliged 
to employ an amanuensis for many years. In 1800 he prepared and 
published a revised edition of "Watts' Psalms," which was approved 
and adopted by the General Association of Connecticut (Congregational). 
This volume contained several hymns from various sources, some of which 
were written by himself. Although best known for many years as a 
theologian, he will doubtless be longest remembered, both in Great Britain 
and America, as the author of the familiar hymn : 

"I love Thy kingdom, Lord." 
His love for 

"The Church our blest Redeemer saved 
With his own precious blood," 

and the consecration and devotion of all his powers to the service of that 
Church, are expressed in the following stanzas of this hymn: 

If e'er my heart forget 

Her welfare or her woe, 
Let every joy this heart forsake, 

And every grief o'erflow. 

For her my tears shall fall, 

For her my prayers ascend; 
To her my cares and toils be given, 

Till toils and cares shall end. 

Beyond my highest joy 

I prize her heavenly ways — 
Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 

Her hymns of love and praise. 



170 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Such "love" of the Church, if realized as well as sung, would solve 
the problem of nonattendance, and all the other difficulties with which 
the Church has to contend in these later days. 

Mrs. Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (1783-1861). 

Mrs. Phoebe H. Brown, the author of the favorite evening hymn, 
beginning : 

I love to steal a while away 

From every cumb'ring care, 
And spend the hours of setting day 
In humble, grateful prayer. 

was born in Canaan, N. Y. in 1783. She was left an orphan when two 
years old. At the age of nine she fell into the hands of a relative who 
kept a country gaol. In the family of this relative she was obliged to 
spend nine years of intense and cruel suffering. "The tale of her early 
life which she has left her children," says her son, "is a narrative of such 
deprivations, cruel treatment, and toil, as it breaks my heart to read." 
Escaping from this bondage at eighteen, she was sought by kind people, 
and sent to a common school at Claverack, N. Y., where she learned to 
write, and soon began to compose verses, and write original articles in 
prose. While at Claverack she made profession of her faith in Christ, 
and joined the Congregational church. In 1805 she was married to 
Timothy H. Brown, a painter, and subsequently lived at East Windsor 
and Ellington, Conn., Monson, Mass., and at Marshall, 111. She died at 
the last named place, Oct. 10, 1861. Most of her hymns were written 
at Monson. Through a life of poverty and trial, she was "a most devoted 
wife, mother, and Christian." Her son, the Rev. S. R. Brown, became 
one of the first American missionaries to Japan. He was one of the four 
pioneer missionaries who translated the New Testament into the Japan- 
ese language. Some of the ablest Christian ministers and some of the 
prominent officials of the Empire were among the pupils in Dr. Brown's 
school at Yokahama, the first English school in Japan. 

Few hymns have a more interesting history than Mrs. Brown's "Twi- 
light Hymn." It was not originally written as a hymn. The authoress 
having no place or opportunity for retirement in her humble little house, 
crowded, as it was, with four little children, and a sick sister in the only 
finished room, was accustomed at the twilight hour to retire to a quiet, 
shady retreat nearby, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 171 

" Where none but God was near/' 

for meditation and prayer. Her regular visits to this spot drew the 
attention of a wealthy neighbor, who, in the presence of others, censured 
her, intimating that, instead of rambling out evenings, she had better 
be at home with her children. Mrs. Brown, stinging under the unjust 
criticism, went home and wrote her poem, entitled, "An Apology for My 
Twilight Rambles, Addressed to a Lady." In Mrs. Brown's account of 
the origin of the hymn, she says: "I went home and that evening was 
left alone. After my children were all in bed, except my baby, I sat 
down in the kitchen, with my child in my arms, when the grief of my 
heart burst forth in a flood of tears." She then took her pen and gave 
vent to her oppressed heart in her beautiful and pathetic "Apology." 
The poem was written in Ellington, Conn., and originally consisted of 
nine stanzas. The original first stanza was: 

I love to steal a while away 

From little ones and care, 
And spend the hours of setting day 

In humble, grateful prayer. 

Dr. Nettleton first discovered the value of the lyric, and included it 
in its abridged form, in his "Village Hymns." 

We are told that Mrs. Brown was self-taught as to human knowledge, 
but she was no inapt scholar in the school of Christ, and her life and work 
are a striking illustration of 1 Cor. 1:27, "But God chose the foolish things 
of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God 
chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things 
that are strong." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 




American Hymns. 

Now let; the heavens be joyful; let earth her song begin; 
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein! 
Invisible or visible, their notes let all things blend; 
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end! 

St. John of Damascus. 

Rev. William Allen, D. D. 

ILLIAM Allen was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on 
the 2nd of January, 1784. He came of a family long 
known in Massachusetts history. His father, the Rev. 
Thomas Allen, was the first minister of the town of Pitts- 
field, and for nearly half a century he wielded a powerful 
influence in religious, civil, and political affairs in the western part of 
the state. 

Thomas Allen was born in Northampton, and was a descendant of 
Samuel, one of the first settlers. His grandfather, named also Samuel, 
was a firm friend of Jonathan Edwards, and a deacon in his church. He 
graduated at Harvard in 1762 in a distinguished class; was ordained as 
pastor of the First Congregational Church at Pittsfield, April 18, 1764, 
and passed here the remainder of his life. He died, after a ministry of 
forty-five years, Feb. 11, 1810, aged sixty-seven years. 

At the time of Mr. Allen's settlement in Pittsfield there were in the 
town but six houses not built of logs. The "meeting-house" in which he 
preached, the first erected in the town, was raised in the summer of 1861 
but was not finished until 1770. He was settled over a church of only 
eight members, and a parish containing sixty families, at a salary of £80 
yearly, supplemented by forty cords of wood. The meeting-house stood 
immediately in front of the present location of the First Congregational 
Church. It was a plain angular building, forty-five feet long by thirty- 
five feet wide. "On three sides of the building was a widely cleared 
space not then free from stumps and stones, while in front, directly before 
the south door, stood that tall and noble elm for generations the pride of 




William Allen. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 173 

the town. (A sun-dial in the park, erected by the local D. A. R. Soc ety 
now marks the site of the historic elm.) In this house Mr. Allen preached 
the sermons and imparted the instruction the influence of which remains 
to this day, and from him the young men of the town learned the lessons 
of patriotism which bore their rich fruitage in the War of Independence." 

Mr. Allen was one of the most zealous patriots of the Revolution, 
and by the vigorous use of his musket, as well as his pen and his voice, 
he won the soubriquet of "The Fighting Parson." He served as a chap- 
lain in the army, and on one occasion he played the part of the soldier. 
He marched August 15, 1777, with a company of his own people in a 
three days' campaign to Bennington to check the advance of Burgoyne : — 
the next day he shared in the assault and the victory; — and the third 
day he returned home to preach the gospel to his rejoicing people. 

Mr. Allen was a man of deep convictions and earnest actions in years 
when convictions and actions divided the people into strongly and bit- 
terly opposed parties. He was one of the most devoted of Mr. Jefferson's 
admirers. He regarded him as the champion of civil liberty, whose cause 
he considered to be identical with that of Protestant Christianity. His 
pulpit denunciation of Toryism added to the acrimony of party spirit 
at that time and caused dissensions in his church which led to a separa- 
tion in 1808, when a number withdrew and were incorporated by the 
legislature into a separate parish. Mr. Allen remained pastor of the 
"Democratic" church until 1810, when he was succeeded by his son, 
William Allen. After seven very unfruitful years of separation, both 
parishes were united under the ministry of Rev. Heman Humphrey, D. D. 

"Fighting Parson Allen " had to pay the penalty which most men 
suffer who live in advance of their time, but his spirit has been marching 
on, and the large family of children whom he reared and educated in those 
strenuous years have been worthy descendants of their illustrious father. 

"Parson" Allen was as devoted and exemplary in his domestic 
relations as he was patriotic and conscientious in his political and min- 
isterial duties. A most beautiful token of his parental affection, which 
has kept his memory green for his children and grandchildren, and many 
of their towns-people, is still standing in front of the palatial mansion 
located on the site of the old parsonage in which he spent so many years. 
On the occasion of the arrival of twins in his family he gave expression 
to his fatherly joy and pride, not in the modern way — perish the thought! 
— but by planting two sapling elms in front of his residence, and twining 



174 FAVORITE HYMNS 

them together so closely that they grew together as twin trees, united as 
compactly as the sisterhood of States in whose defense he fought so bravely. 
The old trees, "one and inseparable" till death shall part them, only 
showing by the seams on the aged trunk where the two were united, are 
a fitting emblem of the conjugal fidelity and devotion, and the vital and 
wide-spreading influence of the good man who planted them. 

Rev. Thomas Allen's twelve children — nine sons and three daughters 
— were all of marked character, and some of them of decided talent. The 
best known to the general public was Rev. William Allen, who succeeded 
his father in the Pittsfield pastorate, and afterwards became President 
of Bowdoin College, and an author of note. Having spent his early years 
in his native place, he entered Harvard College at the age of fourteen 
and graduated in 1802. In 1804 he was licensed to preach by the Berk- 
shire Association, of which his father was a member. From 1805 to 1810 
he was connected with Harvard College as Assistant Librarian, and as 
Regent. During this period he published his well known "Biographical 
Dictionary," which has passed through several editions, and was and is 
justly regarded on both sides of the Atlantic as an invaluable contribution 
to our American literature. From 1816 to 1819 he was President of 
Dartmouth University, and from 1820 to 1839 he was President of Bow- 
doin College. The remaining years of his life were spent at Northampton. 

Dr. Allen's greatest and best known work is his "American Biograph- 
ical Dictionary," but many other highly creditable productions of his 
pen have appeared in print, scattered over nearly the whole of his public 
life, showing the learning and wide research of their eminent author. 

One of the latest of his publications was a small volume of devotional 
poems entitled "A Book of Christian Sonnets." The book contains one 
hundred sonnets, on a great variety of subjects, written amidst great 
bodily infirmity, but breathing a spirit that seemed ripe for heaven. 
Following is a quotation from his sonnet addressed "To My Native Town": 

"Pittsfield, my native town, how changed thou art, 

Since first, in childhood's years, thy streets I trod, 

And in thy single temple worshipped God; 

My father then thine only teacher! Now 
On every side the rival temples grow, 

As though upspringing from prolific sod, 

With tower or spire high-tapering to a rod; 
And num'rous teachers now heaven's pathway show; 

But truth is one, unchanged, always the same, — 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 175 

Its sempiternal source with God on high. 

May all thy pastors guide their flocks aright, 
And lead them to the heavenly pastures bright." 

The following fine tribute is given in his sonnet, "On my Father, 
Rev. Thomas Allen": 

"I give Thee thanks and praise, Great God above! 

That though one half a hundred years be fled 

Since my dear earthly father joined the dead, 

He lives within my heart. His faith, his love, 
His zeal for right, the thoughts that him did move 

The foes of truth t'encounter without dread, — 

All foes of Him who on the cross once bled, — 

Such things for him a web of honor wove. 
My years are more than his: O, could I say, 

My virtues are but equal; and that when 

I reach the closing hour of my life's day, 
My God would give me his strong faith; for then, 

As told he could not live, he made reply — 

'I'm going to live forever in the sky.' " 

Dr. Allen's character was eminently symmetrical and attractive. 
With incorruptible integrity he united a kindliness of spirit, and he was 
free from even the semblance of ostentation. All the Christian graces 
beautifully and richly blended in his character. His life was rounded 
out by a beautiful old age. In his closing years his time was employed 
in hymning the praises of his God and Saviour. Day after day he medi- 
tated upon the glorious realities of his faith, and poured forth his adora- 
tion in sacred hymn, or sonnet, saying, like the Psalmist of Israel, "Thy 
statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." 

Among the many acquirements of Dr. Allen's busy and versatile 
mind was a knowledge of hymnology. After a diligent study of the 
psalmody and hymnody of his time he was convinced that a new lyrical 
version of the Psalms was needed, and he undertook the task of supple- 
menting the more than fifty versions, which had already been produced 
by a version of his own. In 1835 he published a volume, entitled "Allen's 
Psalms and Hymns," which contained 1243 lyrical pieces; of these 660 
were Psalms and 583 were hymns. Of the Psalms 400 were original; of 
the hymns 200. This book was very carefully prepared for use in "Pub- 
lic Worship," and is very quaint and interesting, but the lyrical versions 
of the Psalms are no longer in use, and but few of Allen's hymns are in- 
cluded in our modern hymnals. One of his hymns, in an amended form, 
is found in the "Plymouth Collection." Following are the first two 
stanzas : 



176 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Hear the heralds of the gospel 

News from Zion's King proclaim : — 
'To each rebel sinner pardon; 

Free forgiveness in His name: 
Oh, what mercy! 

'Free forgiveness in His name.' 

Sinners, will you scorn the message 

Sent in mercy from above? 
Eveiy sentence, O how tender! 

Every line is full of love : 
Listen to it; 

Every line is full of love. 

Dr. Allen was an earnest advocate of temperance, anti-slavery, and 
all the other reforms that were being agitated in his day. One of his 
hymns on Slavery, entitled "Hymn (for a future day) for the release of 
all Slaves," contains a remarkable prophecy: — 

Now on the gladden'd sight 
There bursts the glorious light 

Of liberty! 
Within our country's bound 
No wretched thrall is found; 
Each slave is now unbound, — 

And all are free ! 

This now is freedom's home! 
Beneath her temple's dome 

No clanking chain, 
No sale of human throngs, 
No scourge with cruel thongs, 
No secret, dreadful wrongs 

Shall shock again! 

The work, O God! is thine!— 
And may thy love divine 

Do greater things; — 
Break every link of sin, 
Which binds the soul within! 
Let all heav'n's freedom win, 

O King of Kings! 

In substance and spirit Dr. Allen's hymns are unexcelled by any 
modern collection, and in form they probably come as near to the present 
day standard of compilers as our most modern hymnals will to the pre- 
vailing standards half a century hence. 

It is pleasant to linger in such good company, but we must take leave 
of this friend whom we have learned to admire because of the lovely graces 
of his character, and his farewell to us will be in the words of a note ap- 
pended to his "Book of Christian Sonnets," written January first, 1860: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 177 

"My thoughts here expressed, although in verse, are utterances in the 
sincerity of faith and the honesty of truth: and so I bid the reader fare- 
well, wishing him 'a happy New Year' and a blessed eternity." 

Dr. Allen died in 1868, aged 84, and was buried in the beautiful 
cemetery, of which he wrote in one of his "notes": "The grave-yard of 
Northampton, laid out in 1661, is one of peculiar beauty and rich in {he 
deposit of the dead disciples of Christ, among whom were my own ances- 
tors of several generations." 

Rev. William Bingham Tappan (1794-1849). 

William Bingham Tappan was born at Beverly, Massachusetts, in 
1794. In 1810 he was apprenticed to a clockmaker at Boston. In 1815 
he removed to Philadelphia, where he engaged in teaching school for a 
time. From 1826 till the time of his death, he was in the employ of the 
American Sunday School Union as manager and superintendent. In 1841 
he obtained license to preach as a Congregational minister, but not having 
any pastoral charge he was never ordained. He died suddenly, of cholera, 
in West Needham, Massachusetts, June 18, 1849. He wrote and published 
sacred and miscellaneous poetry amounting in all to ten volumes. He is 
most widely known as the author of the familiar hymn, beginning: 

There is an hour of peaceful rest, 
To mourning wanderers given; 
There is a joy for souls distressed, 
A balm for every wounded breast 
'Tis found above, in heaven. 

Another well known hymn, by this author, is the one beginning 
with the stanza: 

'Tis midnight; and on Olive's brow 

The star is dimmed that lately shone : 
'Tis midnight; in the garden, now, 

The suff 'ring Saviour prays alone. 

This hymn first appeared in the author's "Poems," 1822, under the title 
"Gethsemane." 

Mrs. Abigail Bradley Hyde (1799--1872). 

Mrs. Abigail Bradley Hyde was born at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 
Sept. 28, 1799. At the age of nineteen she was married to the Rev. 
Lavius Hyde, of Salisbury, Massachusetts. She died at Andover, April 7, 
1872. Asahel Nettleton included forty- three of her hymns in the two 



178 FAVORITE HYMNS 



editions of his "Village Hymns." Several of these hymns are still in 
common use. The hymn beginning with the stanza: 

And canst thou, sinner, slight 

The call of love Divine? 
Shall God with tenderness invite, 

And gain no thought of thine? 

has appeared in a great number of American collections and a few in 
Great Britain. Her "Prayer in Behalf of Children," beginning: 

Dear Saviour, if these lambs should stray 

From Thy secure enclosure's bound, 
And, lured by worldly joys away, 

Among the thoughtless crowd be found; 

and her "Exhortation to Repentance," — 

Say, sinner! hath a voice within 

Oft whipered to thy secret soul, 
Urged thee to leave the ways of sin, 

And yield thy heart to God's control? 

have also been widely used. 

Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D. (1802-1881). 

Leonard Bacon was born at Detroit (where his father was a mis- 
sionary to the Indians) February 19, 1802, and educated at Yale College, 
and at Andover. In 1825 he was ordained pastor of the Centre Church, 
New Haven, and retained that charge till 1866, when he was appointed 
Professor of Theology in Yale Divinity School. He resigned this professor- 
ship in 1871; but till his death, in 1881, he was lecturer on Church Polity. 
Dr. Bacon rendered important services to hymnology both as writer and 
compiler. Probably the most popular of his hymns is the favorite Ameri- 
can Anniversary hymn, beginning: 

O God, beneath Thy guiding hand, 

Our exiled fathers crossed the sea; 
And when they trod the wintry strand, 

With prayers and psalm they worshipped Thee. 

This hymn was abbreviated and altered from a hymn which he wrote for 
the Bicentenary of New Haven, 1833. 

He is the author of a fine missionary hymn, beginning: 

Wake the song of jubilee, 

Let it echo o'er the sea! 

Now has come the promised hour; 

Jesus reigns with glorious power. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 179 

His evening hymn seems to be the expression of his own sweet spirit 
of election, trust and hope. Following are two stanzas from this hymn: 

Hail, tranquil hour of closing day! 

Begone, disturbing care! 
And look, my soul, from earth away, 

To Him who heareth prayer. 

Calmly the day forsakes our heaven 

To dawn beyond the west: 
So let my soul, in life's last even, 

Retire to glorious rest. 

The prayer expressed in the closing lines of the last stanza was an- 
swered, when Dr. Bacon entered into that "glorious rest," December 23, 
1881. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 181 

the end of the summer he went to New York to be a subordinate teacher 
in a Boarding School for Young Ladies. After a year of service in this 
school, he returned to New Haven to take the position of assistant in 
Prof. E. A. Andrews' School for higher education of young women. The 
next year "The Institute" — as it was called — passed into his hands. 
But, although very successful in his school, his old bent for the ministry 
was too strong for him, and he availed himself of the opportunities for 
Theological study afforded by Yale Divinity School. 

In May, 1835, he was ordained pastor of a church in Bath, Maine. 
Here he labored for fifteen and a half years, during which period was 
built a beautiful sanctuary, that still adorns the city. In 1850 he was 
called to the First Congregational Church of Albany, New York, where 
he labored another fifteen and a half years. In 1867 he removed to New 
York to become the Secretary of the American Congregational Union- 
In this capacity he served the churches for twelve years, and then retired 
to Newark, N. J., there to spend the evening of his life, largely in literary 
work, and there to enter into rest March 29, 1887, in his seventy-ninth 
year. 

During the forty-three years of his service as pastor he was heartily 
trusted and greatly beloved by the people to whom he ministered. He 
was a man of high attainments in scholarship, familiar with the best 
Literature of his own tongue, versed in French, German and Italian 
and the author of a number of books in prose, and verse, but he is more 
widely known to the world at large as a Hymnist. Fifty or sixty of his 
hymns have passed into the hymnals of the Church, and many of them 
by their combination of thought, poetry and devotion have won great 
acceptance, both in America and Great Britain. To the number of his 
original hymns must be added his translations of mediaeval hymns, in 
which he was especially successful. His first hymn — 

"My faith looks up to Thee," 
is the one by which he is most widely known. The story of this hymn 
is an illustration of the couplet — 

"The gems of thought most highly prized 
Are tears of sorrow crystallized," 

which finds its counterpart in the origin of many of the most highly prized 
lyric songs of the Church. The hymn was written in New York shortly 
after his graduation, while he was a "subordinate teacher" in a Ladies' 



182 FAVORITE HYMNS 



School. He had entered the great city "a youth to fortune and to fame 
unknown." With large aspirations and slender opportunities; his health 
still infirm, and his future extremely uncertain, it was not strange that, 
in spite of his sanguine temperament, he was sometimes despondent. It 
was the struggle of his Christian faith out of one of the seasons of depres- 
sion that found a place in his life which gave to the world the hymn. Dr. 
Palmer says: "I gave form to what I felt by writing, with little effort, 
the stanzas. I recollect I wrote them with very tender emotion, and 
ended the last line with tears." The manuscript was then placed in a 
pocket-book, where it remained a year and a half, or more, and was then 
discovered by Dr. Lowell Mason, who asked young Palmer if he had 
not some hymn or hymns to contribute to his new book. The pocket- 
book was then produced and the little hymn was brought to light. Dr. 
Mason wrote for it the tune "Olivet," and it entered into the life of the 
world. It has had a wonderful history. Hardly a Hymnal of the English- 
speaking peoples is without it. It has been translated into many foreign 
languages, and is found wherever American missionaries have rendered 
into native tongues the hymns familiar to their home churches. It 
voices a universal religious experience, and will doubtless find its way 
wherever the Bible will penetrate, until the Gospel shall be preached to 
all nations, and the vision, by faith, of the "Lamb of Calvary," shall be 
changed to sight for all who love His appearing. Equally good, though 
less pathetic in expression, is the hymn beginning with the stanzas: 

Lord, my weak thought in vain would climb 

To search the starry vault profound; 
In vain would wing her flight sublime, 

To find creation's utmost bound. 

But weaker yet that thought must prove 

To search thy great eternal plan, 
Thy sovereign counsels, born of love 

Long ages ere the world began. 

His more familiar hymn, beginning with the stanza: 

Jesus, these eyes have never seen 

That radiant form of Thine; 
The veil of sense hangs dark between 

Thy blessed face and mine. 

is as truly the expression of his faith and love in his maturer years, as 
the song "born in his heart" in the stress of his early manhood voiced 
his ardent faith and devotion as he stood upon the threshold of life. His 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 183 

last audible words, as the rending "veil of sense" began to reveal to him 
"That radiant form," were the closing stanza of this hymn: 

When death these mortal eyes shall seal, 

And still this throbbing heart; 
The rending veil shall Thee reveal, 

All glorious as Thou art! 

Dr. Palmer's son tells us that "his love of hymns grew upon him in 
his declining years. They became not only his psalms of adoration, but 
his songs of hope and gladness, his voices of sorrow and comfort, his 
petitions, his litanies, and his intercessions. They were the occupation 
of his latest hours." At last he entered Heaven with song, and it is his 
abiding recompense, as a hymnist, that through the world-wide chorus 
of his hymns, he is permitted to continue his participation in the worship 
on earth. 

Quite equal in merit to his best original hymns are some of his trans- 
lations — from Robert II of France, 

"Come, Holy Ghost, in love; " 

From St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 

"Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts." 

Rev. Samuel Wolcott, D. D. (1813-1886). 

Samuel Wolcott was born at South Windsor, Connecticut, July 2, 
1813, and educated at Yale College and Andover Theological Seminary. 
From 1S40 to 1842 he was a missionary in Syria. On his return to America 
he was successively pastor of several Congregational churches in different 
sections of the country, and was also for some time Secretary of the Ohio 
Home Missionary society. He died at Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Feb. 
24, 1835. He was the author of more than two hundred hymns, many 
of which are still in manuscript. His most popular hymn now in common 
use is his missionary hymn, from which we quote the first stanza: 

Christ for the world we sing; 
The world to Christ we bring 

With fervent prayer; 
The wayward and the lost, 
By restless passion tossed, 
Redeemed, at countless cost, 

From dark despair. 

The origin of the hymn is thus recorded by the author: "The Young 



184 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Men's Christian Associations of Ohio met in one of our Churches, with 
their motto, in evergreen letters, over the pulpit, 'Christ for the World 
and the World for Christ.' This suggested the hymn, 'Christ for the 
World we sing," 

JUST AS THOU ART. 

By Addison Ballard, D. D. 

The editor of this book takes great pleasure in presenting the follow- 
ing hymn for the first time to the general public. Selected stanzas of this 
designedly companion hymn and of Charlotte Elliott's "Just as I am" 
were sung responsively and with marked impressiveness by the choir and 
congregation of "The Old First" (Presbyterian) Church of New York 
City; as later also by the choir and congregation of "The First Congre- 
gational" Church, Pittsfield, Mass. 

JUST AS THOU ART. 

Just as Thou art, to me, a child, 
Self-banished and unreconciled, 
To win by patient mercy mild, 

Thou Comest, Father, unto me. 

Just as Thou art, without delay, 
Although to rescue me, thy way 
Grows dark with Calvary's bloody day, 
Thou comest, Jesus, unto me. 

Just as Thou art; my guilty soul, 
Beyond my struggling will's control, 
To cleanse from sin and make me whole, 
Thou comest, Spirit, unto me. 

Just as Thou art, blest Three in One, 
Accepting, as it were my own, 
The praise for what is Thine alone, 

Thou comest, Love Divine, to me. 

Rev. Washington Gladden, D. D. LL. D. (1836-). 

Washington Gladden was born at Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, February 
11, 1836, son of Solomon and Amanda (Daniels) Gladden. His father 
was a native of Massachusetts, and was teacher of a school in Pennsylvania 
at the time of his son's birth. The first ancestor in America came from 
England to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1640. Washington Gladden 
began his life on a farm near Owego, New York, and received his early 
education at a country district school. He graduated at Williams College 
in the class of 1859. His theological studies were cut short by necessity; 
but he was licensed to preach in 1860, and was ordained pastor of the 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 185 

State Street Congregational Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., in the same year. 
He was pastor of a church in Morrisania, N. Y., from 1861 to 1866, and 
at North Adams, Mass., 1866 to 1871, when he removed to New York 
City and was connected with the editorial staff of the "New York In- 
dependent," 1871-1875. He was pastor of the North Congregational 
Church in Springfield, Mass., 1875-1882, meanwhile editing, for a time, 
the " Sunday Afternoon," a successful magazine published in Springfield. 
He became pastor of the First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio, 
in 1882. He has acquired a wide reputation as a preacher, as an editor 
and contributor to periodicals, as a public lecturer and reformer, and as 
an author. 

Dr. Gladden's work as a poet and hymn-writer appears to have been 
his chosen avocation through which he sought relief from the pressure 
of the more serious cares and labors of his ordinary vocation, but, although 
his poems are few in number, they are very choice in quality, and we can 
but wish and hope that in the later years he will find time to add many 
more to their number. His hymn of "Trial and Conflict" voices the 
experience of many a doubting heart, and points to "pardoning love" as 
the only hope of forgiveness and assurance. Following are the first and 
last stanzas: 

Forgive, O Lord, the doubts that break 

Thy promises to me; 
Forgive me that I fail to take 

My pardon full and free. 
I sought to put my sins away, 

I strove to do thy will, 
And yet, whene'er I tried to pray, 

My heart was doubting still. 

Forgive, O Father, this my sin, 

This jealous, doubting heart; 
For when men seek thy love to win, 

And choose the better part, 
I know that, swifter than the light 

Leaps earthward from the sun, 
Thy pardoning love, Thy rescuing might, 

Speed down to every one. 

The prayer for wisdom and grace sufficient for his many and varied 
duties, so beautifully expressed in his well-known hymn, beginning; 

O Master, let me walk with Thee 
In lowly paths of service free; 
Tell me Thy secret, let me bear 
The strain of toil, the fret of care; 
seems to have been fully answered. 



186 FAVORITE HYMNS 



His beautiful poem, entitled "The Pastor's Reverie," very aptly 

describes his own long experience as pastor. Following are the last two 

stanzas : 

So blithe and glad, so heavy and sad, 

Are the days that are no more : 
So mournfully sweet are the sounds that float 

With the winds from a far off shore; 
For the pastor has learned what meaneth the word 

That is given to him to keep, — 
'Rejoice with them that do rejoice, 

And weep with them that weep.' 

It is not in vain that he has trod 

This lonely and toilsome way; 
It is not in vain that he has wrought 

In the vineyard all the day; 
For the soul that gives is the soul that lives, 

And bearing another's load 
Doth lighten our own, and shorten the way, 

And brighten the homeward road. 

Rev. Samuel Davies, M. A. (1723-1761). 

The Presbyterian section of the Church, in common with the Con- 
gregationalists, for a long time used Watts' version chiefly. Their first 
official "Psalms and Hymns" appeared in 1828-1829. One of the earliest 
American hymn-writers of this Church was Rev. Samuel Davies, who was 
born at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1723, and educated under the Rev. 
Samuel Blair of Chester County, Pennsylvania. After visiting England 
in 1753, on behalf of the New Jersey College, and having received the 
degree of M. A., he was appointed President of Princeton College in suc- 
cession to Jonathan Edwards. He died in 1761, at the early age of thirty- 
seven. Five volumes of sermons from his manuscripts, and sixteen of his 
hymns were published by Dr. Thomas Gibbons. His sermons show him 
to have been a man of great intellectual vigor, and fervent piety. They 
have been frequently reprinted. As a hymn-writer he followed the lines 
laid down by Watts. There are few hymns of consecration which are 
finer than his hymn, beginning with the stanza: 

Lord, I am thine, entirely thine, 
Purchased and saved by blood divine; 
With full consent thine would I be, 
And own thy sovereign right in me. 

His striking hymn, 

"Great God of wonders, all Thy ways," 
which used to be very popular, is said by Horder to be "somewhat fading 
in popularity on account of its very strong expressions concerning sinners.'' 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 187 

Rev. Samson Occum (1723 1792). 

Contemporary with Samuel Davies — born the same year — was a 
remarkable personage whose career is a striking illustration of the fact 
that the Sacred Muse is no respecter of persons. The blind bard of Scot- 
land, who wrote — 

"Come, O my soul, in sacred lays, 
Attempt thy great Creator's praise;" 

the Hindoo Indian, Krishna Pal, and the American Indian, Occum; the 
shepherd King of Israel and the Poet-laureate of England, were all alike 
inspired by the divine verities of our religion to " attempt the great Crea- 
tor's praise" in "sacred lays" of lyric song. 

Samson Occum a converted Indian, and a minister of the Presby- 
terian Church, was born in 1723 at Mohegan, Conn., and educated at 
Wheelock's school in Lebanon. He was licensed to preach in 1750 and 
became a most useful minister, and one of the most noted men his race 
has ever produced. He was converted under the preaching of White- 
field in America. In 1766 he visited England to raise funds for an Indian 
school. Being the first Indian preacher that had visited England, he 
attracted wide-spread attention, and was received with great favor, as 
is shown by the fact that he secured fifty thousand dollars for his school, 
which afterward became Dartmouth College. After his return he settled 
in Oneida County, N. Y., where he preached successfully among his own 
people until his death in 1792. His well-known hymn, beginning with 
the stanza: 

Awaked by Sinai's awful sound, 

My soul in bonds of guilt I found, 
And knew not where to go: 

Eternal truth did loud proclaim, 

"The sinner must be born again," 
Or sink to endless woe; 

was written in 1760, and is said to have been in common use in England 
as early as 1809. In its original form it began with "Waked by the gos- 
pel's joyful sound;" but the Indian's work was marred and robbed of its 
rightful meaning Jyy the white man's criticism. The hymn was translated 
into Welsh in 1814, and has since been widely and usefully employed in 
revival services. 

Thomas Hastings, Mus. D. (1 784-1872). 

Thomas Hastings, an eminent Doctor of Music, was born at Washing- 
ton, Conn., Oct. 15, 1784. He was distinguished both as poet and musi- 
cian, and the Church is greatly indebted to him for the improvement of 
psalmody and Church music in America. From 1824 to 1832 he gave 
currency to his views on the improvement of church music in a journal — 



188 FAVORITE HYMNS 



the " Recorder" — which he conducted in Utica, N. Y., and from this 
resulted an invitation from twelve New York churches to come to the 
metropolis to carry out his theories. Here, in connection with William 
B. Bradbury, he became practically the leader of Church music in America. 
For years he devoted himself to this work with marked success. He 
composed many of our most popular church tunes, and edited a large 
number of music books. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, 
and a devout Christian. He died at New York City in 1872, at the age 
of eighty-eight. He is the author of some six hundred hymns, many of 
which are still in common use. Perhaps the most familiar of his hymns 
are: 

"Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning; ' 
and 

"Gently, Lord, O gently lead us 
Through this lonely vale of tears." 

His tender, appealing hymn of Invitation: — 

"Return, O wanderer, to thy home, 
Thy Father calls for thee," 

is in common use in Great Britain. 

His beautiful and pathetic hymn, entitled "Thy Will be Done," 
has been widely used as a funeral hymn. Following are the first two 
stanzas: 

Jesus, while our hearts are bleeding 

O'er the spoils that death has won, 
We would, at this solemn meeting, 

Calmly say, "Thy will be done." 

Though cast down, we're not forsaken; 

Though afflicted, not alone: 
Thou didst give, and Thou hast taken; 

Blessed Lord, "Thy will be done." 

Among his other hymns in common use are his .fine Resurrection 
hymn — 

"How calm and beautiful the morn 
That gilds the sacred tomb;" 

the familiar hymn, sung to his own tune, "Arcadia," 



In time of fear, when trouble's near, 
I look to thine abode;" 



his fine missionary hymn, — 



; Now be the gospel banner 
In every land unfurl'd;" 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 189 

the Sabbath hymn, — 

"The rosy light is dawning 
Upon the mountain's brow;" 

and his hymn of prayer for guidance and renewed consecration, begin- 
ning: 

Jesus, merciful and mild, 

Lead me as a helpless child : 

On no other arm but thine 

Would my weary soul recline. 

Dr. Hastings is the author of the popular tune "Zion," ("On the 
mountain-top appearing,") of "Toplady," the favorite tune for "Rock 
of Ages," and of numerous other sweet and popular tunes. 

Rev. James Waddell Alexander, D. D. (1804-1859). 

James Waddell Alexander was born at Hopewell, Virginia, in 1804. 
He was the son of the distinguished divine, Rev. Archibald Alexander, 
D. D. He graduated at Princeton, 1820, and was successively pastor in 
Charlotte Co., Va., and Trenton, New Jersey; Professor of Rhetoric at 
Princeton, 1833; pastor of Duane Street Presbyterian Church, New York, 
1844; Professor of Church history, Princeton, 1849, and pastor of Fifth 
Avenue Presbyterian church, New York, 1851. He is one of the best 
translators of German hymns. His translations were collected and pub- 
lished at New York, in 1871, under the title, "The Breaking Crucible and 
other Translations." In the seventeenth century Paul Gerhardt published 
a German version of a hymn by Bernard of Clairvaux beginning "Salve 
caput cruentatum," which has ever since been a great favorite in Germany. 
In 1830 Dr. Alexander translated Gerhardt's German into English. Fol- 
lowing is the first stanza of the English version of Bernard's pathetic 
hymn: 

O sacred Head, now wounded, 

With grief and shame weighed down, 
Now scornfully surrounded 

With thorns, Thine only crown; 
O sacred Head, what glory, 

What bliss, till now was Thine! 
Yet, tho' despised and gory, 
I joy to call Thee mine. 

Dr. Philip Schaff says: "This classical hymn has shown in three 
tongues, Latin, German, and English, and in three Confessions, Roman, 
Lutheran, and Reformed, with equal effect, the dying love of our Saviour 
and our boundless indebtedness to Him." 



190 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Dr. Alexander is also the author of the most popular English trans- 
lation of the celebrated Latin hymn, the "Stabat Mater," of Jacopone 
da Todi, a Franciscan monk. This hymn has been translated seventy- 
eight times into German, and many times into other languages. Many 
noted musicians have composed accompaniments for it. It is this hymn 
which has inspired the several paintings of the masters, titled "Mater 
Dolorosa." It dates in its present form from about 1150, and has always 
held a very high place in the Catholic Church. The original has ten 
stanzas, but several, containing addresses and allusions to the Virgin 
Mary, are omitted in our Protestant hymnals. Following is the first 

stanza: 

Near the cross was Mary weeping. 
There her mournful station keeping, 

Gazing on her dying Son: 
There in speechless anguish groaning, 
Yearning, trembling, sighing, moaning, 
Through her soul the sword had gone. 




George Duffield, Jr. 



CHAPTER XX. 

American Hymns. 



"For all we know 
Of what the blessed do above, 
Is that they sing — and that they love." 




Rev. George Duffield, Jr., D.D. (1818-1888). 

EORGE Duffield, Jr., was born at Carlisle, Penn., in 1818. 
He was the son of Rev. George Duffield, D. D. "the 
Patriarch of Michigan," and the father of the late Rev. 
Samuel W. Duffield, D. D., of Bloomfield, N. J., author 
of "English hymns," "Latin Hymn Writers and Hymns," 
etc. He was graduated at Yale College in 1837, and from Union Theo- 
logical Seminary in 1840. In the same year he was ordained, and in- 
stalled pastor of the Fifth Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., where 
he remained seven years. After leaving Brooklyn he was pastor of the 
First Church of Bloomfield, New Jersey, for four years. In 1851 he ac- 
cepted a call to the Central Presbyterian Church of the Northern Liberties, 
Philadelphia, Pa., where he remained about ten years. His subsequent 
pastorates were at Adrian, Michigan, Galesburg, Illinois, and Saginaw City, 
Michigan. He was the author of several hymns, but is chiefly known by 
his very familiar and popular hymn, — 

"Stand up! stand up for Jesus! 
Ye soldiers of the cross." 

This hymn was founded on the dying message of the Rev. Dudley 
A. Tyng to those assembled at the Young Men's Christian Association 
prayer-meeting at Philadelphia, — "Tell them to stand up for Jesus." 
Mr. Tyng, whom the author of the hymn described as "one of the noblest, 
bravest, manliest men I ever met," was a leader in the great revival of 
1857-58, which centered about the noonday prayer-meetings under the 
charge of the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Tyng was assisted 
in the work by his friend, Dr. Duffield, and a band of ministers of various 
denominations. On the Sunday before his death Mr. Tyng preached in 



192 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Jayne's Hall a sermon of such spiritual power that out of five thousand 
present at the delivery, at least a thousand are believed to have been 
converted. In the midst of this remarkable work and fellowship came 
the tragic interruption of Mr. Tyng's death. 

On Tuesday, April 13th, 1858, Mr. Tyng left his study for a moment 
and went to a barn where a mule was at work on a horse-power, shelling 
corn. As he patted the animal on the neck the sleeve of his study-gown 
became caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was lacerated from 
the neck down, in a dreadful manner. Amputation, performed on the 
Saturday following, only postponed the end, and Mr. Tyng died on Mon- 
day, April 19th, at the early age of thirty years. 

Early that morning, it being perceived that he was sinking, he was 
asked if he had any message to send to the band of clergymen, and others 
so devoted to him and the work. He responded with the words: "Tell 
them, 'let us all stand up for Jesus'"; then, after a pause, he said to 
those about him, "Sing! Sing! can you not sing?" Bishop Macllvaine 
and the Rev. John Chambers quoted the words, "Stand up for Jesus," 
at the funeral, as their friend's dying message. The words were quoted 
by Rev. Thomas H. Stockton in a poem which he read at one of the Jayne's 
Hall meetings. The Rev. Kingston Goddard, preaching to a great assembly 
on the day after Mr. Tyng's death, remarked, "I conceive that the whole 
of my brother's teaching is contained in that grand and noble expression 
of heroism and devotion that fell from his lips in his dying hour — 'Stand 
up for Jesus!'" 

Dr. Dufheld, who had been present at these services, on the Sunday 
following preached to his own people from Ephesians 6:14, and read as 
the concluding exhortation of the sermon the verses of his now famous 
hymn, into which he had wrought the message of his friend. They were 
printed on a fly-leaf for the Sunday school scholars, by the superintendent; 
thence they found their way into religious papers, and afterwards passed, 
either in English or translated forms, all over the world. The hymn 
became the favorite song of the Christian soldiers during the Civil War. 
Thus did Dr. Dumeld fulfill the last request of his friend, "Sing! Can you 
not sing?" in a way which he did not expect, and "the trumpet call" 
of the dying message of this brave and noble "soldier of the cross" will 
continue to be heard in rhythmic song, calling multitudes in the future, 
as in the past, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 193 



Forth to the mighty conflict 
In this His glorious day": 



and 



"From victory unto victory 

His army He shall lead, 
Till every foe is vanquished, 

And Christ is Lord indeed." 

Dr. Dufneld was himself a good "soldier of the cross," and his active 
labors covered more than forty years. His son, himself a poet, always 
recalled with pride that his hand had made the first "fair copy'' of his 
father's hymn for the press. Dr. Duffield died at Bloomneld on July 6th, 
1833, and his remains were buried in Detroit. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Payson Prentiss (18 18-1878). 

Elizabeth Payson was the daughter of Rev. Edward Payson, of Port- 
and, Maine, where she was born in 1818. She became a contributor of 
both prose and poetry to the "Youth's Companion" as early as her six- 
teenth year. She taught in schools in Portland, Ipswich, Mass., and in 
Richmond, Va. She was married in 1845 to Rev. George L. Prentiss, 
D. D., an eminent Presbyterian divine and Professor in Union Theological 
Seminary of New York City. She was an author of great and deserved 
popularity as a writer of religious tales. Her "Stepping Heavenward" 
had an enormous circulation in all English-speaking countries, and was 
translated into many foreign languages. In spite of almost continual 
ill-health in later years, she was always busy with literary or religious 
work, finding in "incessant work a substitute for rest and solace for want 
of it." The secret of her success is expressed in the following lines from 
one of her poems : 

"Complete in Him! no word of mine is needed, Lord, to perfect Thine: 
Wise Master Builder, let Thy hand fashion the fabric Thou hast planned. 
Complete in Him! I nothing bring, — am an imperfect, useless thing; 
But human eyes shall joy to see what God's dear hand shall add to me." 

Mrs. Prentiss is the author of many beautiful and touching poems 
and hymns. Among them, the most popular hymn is the one beginning 
with the stanza: 

More love to Thee, Christ, 

More love to Thee! 
Hear Thou the prayer I make, 

On bended knee; 



194 FAVORITE HYMNS 



This is my earnest plea, 
More love, O Christ, to Thee, 
More love to Thee ! 

Mrs. Prentiss said: "I write in verse whenever I am deeply stirred, 
because, though as full of tears as other people, I cannot shed them. ' ' 
So it is true of this sweet singer, also, that her songs 

"Are tears of sorrow crystallized." 
Her hymn, 

"More love to Thee, O Christ,", 

has been translated into Arabic, and is sung in the far East, the very 
birthplace of Christianity. Mrs. Prentiss died at Dorset, Vermont, August 
13th, 1878, and the cry of her heart expressed in the closing stanza of 
her hymn was doubtless fully answered: 

Then shall my latest breath 

Whisper Thy praise; 
This be the parting cry 

My heart shall raise, 
This still its prayer shall be, 
More love, O Christ, to Thee, 

More love to Thee! 

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843). 

Francis Scott Key, well known as the author of the "Star Spangled 

Banner," and first in date among the Espicopal group of hymn-writers 

was the son of John Ross Key, and was born on his father's estate in 

Frederick County, Maryland, on August 1st, 1779. He was educated at 

St. John's College, Annapolis, and commenced the practice of law at 

Frederick in 1801. A few years later he moved to Georgetown, D. C. 

and for three terms was district attorney for the District of Columbia. 

His poetical pieces, Avhich were printed in various works, were collected 

and published as "Poems" in 1857. His ability as an attorney, and his 

ardent patriotism are too well-known to require any comment. He is 

also distinguishad as the author of a hymn which in the opinion of Rev. 

Frederick M. Bird, a competent judge, is as memorable a piece of work 

as his "Star Spangled Banner." This popular hymn begins with the 

stanza: 

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise Thee 

For the bliss Thy love bestows, 
For the pardoning grace that saves me, 

And the peace that from it flows: 
Help, O God, my weak endeavor; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 195 

This dull soul to rapture raise : 
Thou must light the flame, or never 
Can my love be warmed to praise. 

Mr. Key was a man of eminent attainments and exemplary piety 

and the key to his earnest and useful life is found in the closing lines of 

his hymn: 

Low before Thy footstool kneeling, 

Deign Thy suppliant's prayer to bless: 
Let Thy grace, my soul's chief treasure, 

Love's pure flame within me raise; 
And, since words can never measure, 

Let my life show forth Thy praise. 

Though heavily burdened with professional duties, "he found much 
time to visit the sick, to comfort the mourning, to confer with the en- 
quiring, to warn the careless: and he stood ever ready, at a moment's 
warning, to lift his voice in behalf of any of the great public charities of 
the day." His faith in God, as well as his love of the banner of "the 
heaven-rescued land," shines forth in the closing lines of his famous song: 

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust"; 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

Mr. Key died in Baltimore, January 11th, 1843. 

"Over the grave of Francis Scott Key, at Frederick Maryland, there 
was placed in 1898 an impressive monument. His figure in bronze stands 
on a granite base. He is represented at the moment of discovery that 
'our flag was stiil there,' his right arm extended toward it, and the left 
waving aloft his hat in an exultant salute." A statue of him also stands 
in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, provided by the will of James Lick, 
the California millionaire. 

Following is the story of his famous song: Toward the end of the 
War of 1812 he learned that a friend and neighbor had been taken from 
his home by the British forces and was held as a prisoner on board the 
admiral's ship. He at once determined to intercede for his friend's re- 
lease, and secured from the government the papers necessary for his 
purpose. He visited the squadron of the British on the Potomac under 
a flag of truce, but was detained under guard, for an attack on Baltimore 
was about to begin. Anxiously he paced the deck through the long night 
of the bombardment, until he saw the dawn's early light on the flag still 
waving over Fort McHenry. The attack had failed. He was released, 



196 FAVORITE HYMNS 



and most of his song was roughly drafted on the back of a letter, before 
he reached the shore. The next day it was printed on handbills, and so 
it entered upon its career as one of the most popular of all the stirring 
battle hymns that inspired and sustained the vast army of the Potomac 
during the civil war, until the banner 

" Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight" 
had led on to the blood-bought victory, at last, and the " star-spangled 
banner" was "gallantly streaming" 

"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" 

Rev. William Augustus Muhlenburg, D. D. (i 796-1877). 

William Augustus Muhlenberg was born in Philadelphia, September 
16th, 1796, and came of distinguished stock. His great-grandfather was 
founder of the Lutheran Church in America. His grandfather (Frederick 
A.) was speaker of the House of Representatives in the First and Second 
Congresses during Washington's first administration. He graduated at 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1814, and entered the ministry of the 
Episcopal Church in 1817. In 1820 he became rector of St. James' Church, 
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1826 he established a school at Flushing, 
Long Island, under church auspices, intending that education at this 
"Institute" should be distinctly religious. Here he labored enthusiastic- 
ally for fifteen years. In 1846 he became rector of a church in New York 
City, founded by his sister, which he developed into a "free" church. 
Here he organized the first Protestant sisterhood, and established St. 
Luke's Hospital, in which, as pastor, he spent the last twenty years of 
his life, ministering to the suffering. He also established the religious 
ndustrial community of St. Johnland on Long Island. In the early 
years of his ministry he began his labors for a better church hymnody 
by publishing his "Church Poetry," and he was the first to introduce 
large choirs of male voices in a New York church. 

Dr. Muhlenberg is the author of several excellent hymns which have 
long been in common use in the churches. Probably the most popular 
of these has been the one beginning: 

I would not live away; I ask not to stay 

Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way; 

The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here 

Are enough for life's woes, full enough for its cheer. 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 197 

The lyric in its original form was comprised in six eight-line stanzas, 
and was written, impromptu, in a lady's album. It first appeared in the 
"Episcopal Recorder" in 1826. From the paper, in which it was printed 
anonymously, it was adopted by a sub-committee among the hymns to 
be passed upon by the whole committee which then (1826) was engaged 
in preparing a hymnal for the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was at 
first rejected by the whole committee, of which Dr. Muhlenberg was a 
member, the author voting against himself, but it was afterwards restored 
through the influence of Dr. Onderdonk. It was copied into other books 
and soon became one of the most popular of American hymns. In 1833 
Mr. George Kingsiey composed for it the melodious tune, "Frederick/' 
and it was printed as sheet music in that year. All attempts to put a 
newer tune in place of Mr. Kingsiey's have been rejected, and the 
tune and hymn are likely to "live alway " in sweet and undisturbed accord. 
The hymn was written when the author was in his twenties, and on account 
of the vein of melancholy running through it, there is a tradition that it 
was occasioned by a great personal disappointment similar to that ex- 
perienced by Watts, when he wrote 

"How vain are all things here below!" 
and by John Wesley, who w T rote 

"How happy is the pilgrim's lot!" 
But the story that "I would not live alway" had its origin in a "private 
grief" of the author has not been fully corroborated, though the fact that 
he never married, and the testimony of some of his friends, furnish cir- 
cumstantial evidence of a romantic origin of the hymn. He came to dis- 
like the hymn in his later years, because of its "other-worldliness," and 
its impatient longing for the joys of heaven, feeling that it did not truly 
represent the joys and opportunities of the earthly life. He tried to 
"evangelize'' the hymn by writing several new versions of it, but none 
of them would replace the earlier text in the popular favor and the hymn 
will long continue to voice the hopes and longings of tried and tempted 
souls who feel that "to depart, and to be with Christ, is far better." 

Dr. Muhlenberg's lovely personality, his saintliness, and his utter 
abnegation of selfish interests caused him to be greatly revered and be- 
loved by all who knew him. In his efforts for the Christianizing of edu- 
cation, and the bettering of the lot of the poor, he spent all his private 
fortune, and left behind less than enough to bury him. "His long life 



198 FAVORITE HYMNS 



was one stream of blessed charity," and in his self-denying labors he 
found "the joy of the Lord" for which he was longing when he sang, — 

O give me, oh give me the wings of a dove, 

To adore Him, be near Him, enwrapt with His love. 

There is no minor note in the hymn, of which the first stanza follows: 

Zion, the marvellous story be telling, 

The Son of the Highest, how lowly his birth! 

The brightest archangel in glory excelling, 

He stoops to redeem thee, He reigns upon earth. 

Shout the glad tidings, exultingly sing; 

Jerusalem triumphs, Messiah is King. 

His hymn beginning: 

Saviour, who Thy flock art feeding 

With the shepherd's kindest care, 
All the feeble gently leading 

While the lambs Thy bosom share; 

is one of the most beautiful and widely known baptismal hymns. Fol- 
lowing are the first two stanzas of another well-known hymn by this 
author: 

Like Noah's weary dove, 

That soared the earth around, 
But not a resting place above 

The cheerless waters found, — 

O cease my wand 'ring soul, 
On restless wing to roam ; 
All the wide world to either pole, 
Has not for thee a home. 

Dr. Muhlenberg died at St. Luke's Hospital, April 8th, 1877, in his 
eighty-first year, and was buried at St. Johnland. The rapturous vision 
of heavenly joys, which inspired the song of his early life, was at last 
realized : 

Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, 
Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet; 
While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, 
And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul. 

Rt. Rev. George Washington Doane, D. D. (1799-1859). 

George Washington Doane, for twenty-seven years Bishop of New 
Jersey, was born at Trenton, N. J., May 27th, 1799, and was educated 
at Union College. He entered the ministiy in 1821, and filled various 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 199 

important charges. He was rector of Trinity Church, Boston, when he 
was elected Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey in 1832. His exceptional 
talents, learning, and force of character made him one of the great prelates 
of his time. His warmth of heart secured devoted friends who were loyal 
to him in the many severe trials through which he passed, and long con- 
tinued to cherish his memory with reverence and affection. He published 
several works on Theology, and a volume of poems, entitled "Songs by 
the Way." A few of his lyrics are among the best. He is the author of 
one of the most admirable and useful hymns in the English language. 
It is in most extensive use in the United States, and in England it ranks 
with the most popular of the great English hymns. We quote the entire 
hymn: | 

Thou art the way: — to Thee alone 

From sin and death we flee; 
And he who would the Father seek, 

Must seek him, Lord, by Thee. 

Thou art the Truth : — Thy word alone 

True wisdom can impart; 
Thou only canst inform the mind, 

And purify the heart. 

Thou art the Life : the rending tomb 

Proclaims Thy conqu'ring arm; 
And those who put their trust in Thee 

Nor death nor hell can harm. 

Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life: 
* " Grant as that way to know, 
That truth to keep, that Life to win, 
Whose joys eternal flow. 

Bishop Doane is the author of the beautiful evening hymn, beginning : 

Softly now the light of day 
Fades upon our sight away; 
Free from care, from labor free, 
Lord, we would commune with Thee. 

One of our best Missionary hymns is also by this author. Following 
is the first stanza of this hymn: 

Fling out the banner! let it float 

Skyward and seaward, high and wide; 

The sun shall light its shining folds, 
The cross on which the Saviour died. 

His long and useful ministry was closed by his death, at Burlington, 
New Jersey, April 27, 1859. 



200 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Rev. William Crosswell, D. D. (1804-1851). 

William Crosswell was born at Hudson, New York, son of Harry 
Crosswell, an able rector of Trinity Church, New Haven. He was 
graduated at Yale College in 1822; and with an elder brother established 
a select school in New Haven. In 1826 he entered Hartford College as a 
Theological student; was admitted to the priesthood in 1828, and after 
holding several minor pastorates, removed to Boston in 1844 to become 
rector of the Church of the Advent. Whilst at Hartford he assisted, 
during 1827-28, in editing "The Watchman," and contributed to it many 
of his poetical pieces. He wrote several beautiful sacred lyrics, which, 
like those of Bishop Coxe, are exquisitely brilliant, musical, and stirring. 
His "Poems," collected by his father and edited by Bishop Coxe, were 
published in 1860. As a hymnist he is chiefly known as the author of a 
hymn written in 1831 for the Howard Benevolent Society of Boston. It 
is one of the best American hymns for benevolent occasions: 

Lord, lead the way the Saviour went, 

By lane and cell obscure, 
And let love's treasure still be spent, 

Like His, upon the poor. 

Like Him, through scenes of deep distress, 

Who bore the world's sad weight, 
We, in their crowded loneliness, 

Would seek the desolate. 

For Thou hast placed us side by side, 

In this wide world of ill, 
And, that Thy followers may be tried, 

The poor are with us still. 

Mean are all offerings we can make, 

But Thou hast taught us, Lord, 
If given for the Saviour's sake, 

They lose not their reward. 

Dr. Crosswell died suddenly at Boston, Nov. 9, 1851. While engaged 
in the public Sabbath afternoon service, at the conclusion of the last 
collect, instead of rising from his knees, he sank upon the floor, and shortly 
afterward expired. 




Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

American Hymns. 



The lark is in the sky, and his morning note is pouring: 

He hath a wing to fly, so he's soaring, Christian, soaring! 

His nest is on the ground, but only in the night; 

For he loves the matin-sound, and the highest heaven's height. 

Hark, Christian, hark! at heaven-door he sings! 

And be thou like the lark, with thy soaring spirit-wings! 

Bishop A. C. Coxe. 




Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe (18 12-1896). 

ARRIET Beecher Stowe, daughter of the Rev. Lyman 
Beecher, D. D., was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, 
June 15, 1812. She attended Litchfield Academy 1817 to 
1824, and it was here that, at the age of twelve, she wrote 
her precocious essay entitled, "Can Immortality of the 
Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature?" In 1824 she entered the school 
taught by her sister Catherine at Hartford, and taught there for six years. 
In 1832 her father having been appointed President of Lane Seminary, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, she removed there with the family, and in 1836 was 
married to the Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, D. D., Professor of Languages and 
Biblical Literature in the same Institution. Her high reputation as an 
author is well known, both in Europe and America. The immense suc- 
cess of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which first appeared in the National Era 
in 1852, ensures her a lasting reputation. She has also written other 
well-known works. Her poetical pieces were published in her "Religious 
Poems," in 1867. She was the sister of Henry Ward Beecher, of whom, 
after hearing in London most of the chief preachers, she exclaimed, "Oh, 
for half an hour with my brother Henry!" Three of her best known 
hymns appeared in the "Plymouth Collection," edited by her brother 
Henry, in 1855. Mr. Garrett Horder, in commenting on her hymns, 
says: "they are very beautiful, and are greatly prized in churches which 



202 FAVORITE HYMNS 



do not regard poetiy in hymns as a fatal disqualification for their use in 
public worship." Probably the most widely used of her hymns is the 
one from which the following stanzas are quoted : 

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, 

When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee; 
Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight, 

Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee! 

Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows, 

The solemn hush of nature newly born: 
Alone with Thee, in breathless adoration, 

In the calm dew and freshness of the morn. 

So shall it be at last, in that bright morning, 

When the soul waketh, and life's shadows flee; 
Oh, in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning, 

Shall rise the glorious thought, I am with Thee! 

Equally beautiful is her hymn entitled "Abide in me." Following 
are three stanzas of this hymn: 

That mystic word of Thine, O Sovereign Lord! 

Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me; 
Weary with striving, and with longing faint, 

I breathe it back again in prayer to Thee. 

Abide in me — o'ershadow by Thy love, 

Each half-formed purpose and dark thought of sin; 

Quench, ere it rise, each selfish, low desire, 
And keep my soul as Thine — calm and divine. 

The soul alone, like a neglected harp, 

Grows out of tune, and needs that Hand divine; 

Dwell Thou within it, tune and touch the chords; 
Till every note and string shall answer Thine. 

Following are three stanzas from another of her hymns, in which 
poetry and devotion are happily combined: 

When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, 
And billows wild contend with angry roar, 

'Tis said, far down, beneath the wild commotion, 
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. 

So to the heart that knows Thy love, O Purest! 

There is a temple, sacred evermore, 
And all the babble of life's angry voices 

Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door. 

O Rest of rests! O Peace, serene, eternal! 

Thou ever livest, and thou changest never; 
And in the secret of Thy presence dwelleth 

Fullness of joy forever and forever. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 203 

The familiar hymn, 

"Knocking, knocking, who is there?" 

was adapted from one of Mrs. Stowe's poems. In her poem entitled 
"The Other World," we find the following lines: 

"It lies around us like a cloud, — a world we do not see; 
Yet the sweet closing of an eye may bring us there to be. 

How lovely, and how sweet a pass, the hour of death may be, — 
To close the eye, and close the ear, wrapped in a trance of bliss, 
And, gently drawn in loving arms, to swoon to that from this." 

Mrs. Stowe entered the "dark valley," which had no shadows for 
her, at the age of eighty-four, and we may be sure that she found, in that 
hour, 

"How lovely, and how sweet a pass, the hour of death may be." 
She died at Hartford, Connecticut, July 1, 1896. 

Rev. Charles William Everest, M. A. (1814-1877). 

Charles William Everest, an Episcopal clergyman, was born in East 
Windsor, Connecticut, May 27, 1814; graduated at Trinity College, Hart- 
ford, in 1838; was ordained in 1842 and at once became rector of the 
parish of Hamden, near New Haven, Conn., where he remained for thirty- 
one years. In 1833 he published a volume entitled "Visions of Death 
and Other Poems." From this work was taken a hymn which has been 
very widely used, and is even more popular in England than in America. 
The third verse, which has been badly marred by compilers, is quoted 
below in its proper form: 

"Take up thy cross," the Saviour said, 

"If thou wouldst My disciple be; 
Take up thy cross with willing heart, 

And humbly follow after Me." 

Take up thy cross; let not its weight 

Fill thy weak soul with vain alarm; 
His strength shall bear thy spirit up, 

And brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm. 

Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame, 

And let thy foolish pride be still; 
Thy Lord refused not e'en to die 

Upon a cross, on Calvary's hill. 



204 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Take up thy cross, and follow on, 

Nor think till death to lay it down; 
For only he who bears the cross 

May hope to wear the glorious crown. 

The author of the hymn was permitted to lay down his cross, and 
enter into rest, at Waterbury, Conn., Jan. 11, 1877. 

Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, D. D., LL. D. (1818-1896) 

Arthur Cleveland Coxe, who became one of the most distinguished 
of American prelates, was the son of an eminent Presbyterian minister, 
the Rev. Samuel Coxe, D. D. He was born at Mendham, New Jersey, 
May 10, 1818; graduated at the University of New York in 1838, and 
taking Holy Orders in 1841, he became rector of St. John's, Hartford, 
Conn., in the following year. In 1851 he visited England, and on his 
return was elected rector of Grace Church, Baltimore, 1854, and Calvary, 
New York, 1863. His consecration as Bishop of the Western Diocese 
of New York took place in 1865. 

Bishop Coxe is the author of numerous works in prose and verse. 
His poetical works were mostly written in early life. Some of his hymns 
are found in the collections of nearly every religious body in America, 
except the official collections of the Episcopal Church. He was a member 
of the Hymnal Committee in 1869-71, and because of his scrupulous 
modesty, he refused to permit the insertion of his own lyrics. He was 
a gifted poet, and his volume of " Christian Ballads" contains many 
pieces of great beauty. He is the author of one of the finest of our Mis- 
sionary hymns. This hymn was "begun on Good Friday, 1850, and com- 
pleted 1851, in the grounds of Magdalen College, Oxford." Following are 
part of the first, and all of the second stanzas: 

Saviour, sprinkle many nations, 

Fruitful let Thy sorrows be; 
By Thy pains and consolations 

Draw the Gentiles unto Thee. 

Far and wide, though all unknowing, 

Pants for Thee each mortal breast; 
Human tears for Thee are flowing, 

Human hearts in Thee would rest, 
Thirsting, as for dews of even, 

As the new-mown grass for rain; 
Thee, they seek, as God of heaven, 

Thee as Man for sinners slain. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 205 

From his fine poem, entitled "Hymn to the Redeemer," two shorter 
hymns have been compiled — one beginning with the stanza: 

How beauteous were the marks divine, 
That in Thy meekness used to shine; 
That lit Thy lonely pathway trod 
In wondrous love, O Son of God; 

The other commencing with the lines, — 

Oh, who like Thee, so calm, so bright, 
Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Light of light, 
Oh, who like Thee did ever go 
So patient through a world of woe? 

Bishop Coxe is author of the familiar hymn, beginning: 

We are living, we are dwelling 
In a grand and awful time; 

and the one from which the following stanzas are quoted: 

O, where are kings and empires now, 

Of old that went and came? 
But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, 

A thousand years the same. 

We mark her goodly battlements, 

And her foundations strong; 
We hear within the solemn voice 

Of her unending song. 

Having done much to increase the volume of the Church's song on earth, 

Bishop Coxe, at the age of seventy-eight, was permitted to join in the 

chorus 

"Of her unending song," 

in the world where there is perennial youth, and "joy without sorrow." 

Miss Eliza Scudder (1821-1896). 

Eliza Scudder, niece of Dr. Edmund Henry Sears, was born at Bos- 
ton, Nov. 14, 1821. She was formerly a Unitarian, but severed her 
connection with that Church to join the Episcopal Church at Salem, 
Massachusetts. She possessed a rare poetic gift, and some of her hymns 
are among the very finest of modern times. Like Mrs. Stowe's, they are 
a little in advance of the present Hymnal standard, but are doubtless 
destined to find a place in many collections in the future. Probably 
her best known hymn is the one on "The Love of God." Following are 
the first four stanzas: 



206 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Thou Grace Divine, encircling all, 

A shoreless, boundless sea, 
Wherein at last our souls must fall; 

O love of God most free. 

When over dizzy heights we go, 
A soft hand blinds our eyes, 

And we are guided safe and slow; 
O Love of God most wise. 

And though we turn us from Thy face, 
And wander wide and long, , 

Thou holds't us still in kind embrace; 
O Love of God most strong. 

The saddened heart, the restless soul, 
The toil-worn frame and mind, 

Alike confess Thy sweet control, 
O Love of God most kind. 



Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, D. D. (1835-1893). 

Phillips Brooks was born in Boston, December 13th, 1835. He was 
descended from Puritan clergymen on both the paternal and maternal 
side: — from Rev. John Cotton on his father's side, and from the Phillips 
family, the founders of the two Phillips Academies, on his mother's. His 
father was for forty years a hardware merchant in Boston. He was one 
of four brothers who were ordained to the Episcopal ministry. After a 
preparatory course in the Latin School, he entered Harvard College 
from which he graduated in 1S55. He was for a few months a teacher 
in the Latin School, but soon decided to enter the ministry, and studied 
at Alexandria Seminary, in Virginia. In 1859 he became rector of a 
small church in Philadelphia. Here his sermons attracted much atten- 
tion, and in 1861, he was called to be rector of the Holy Trinity in the 
same city. In that position he remained until 1869, when the urgency 
of repeated calls, and his own desire to return to his native town, led him 
to accept the rectorship of Trinity Church, Boston. The great church 
in the Back Bay was built for him, at the cost of a million dollars, and 
there he preached to the largest congregation gathered in any single 
church in Boston. His ministry at Trinity church lasted for twenty 
years, during which he proved a true pastor, caring for and serving the 
lowliest among his people. 

During his vacations he traveled both in England and on the con- 
tinent, and he spent one winter in India. In England, where he became 




Phillips Brooks. 



AXD THEIR AUTHORS 207 

a close friend of Dean Stanley, he made a very deep impression, preach- 
ing many times in different churches, and once before the Queen. Dr. 
L. F. Benson says of him: "He was great in his physical proportions, 
great in his endowment of genius, great in the power to work, extraordin- 
arily great in his personal influence over men, greatest of all in the moral 
elevation of his character, and his ever deepening spirit of consecration 
to -Christ's service." But he was lonely in his greatness, and the opposi- 
tion he had to meet from officials of his own Church on account of his 
"broad views in church matters," doubtless added much to the weight 
of the cross he had to bear. In 1891 he was consecrated Bishop of Mass- 
achusetts; but this position he was not to hold for long, for the strain of 
the great work he had been doing had undermined even his giant strength, 
and after a short sickness he passed away on January 23rd, 1893, at the 
age of fifty-eight. 

In his memorable sermon on Abraham Lincoln preached in Phila- 
delphia when the body of the murdered President was lying in state in 
that city, he said: "The more we see of events the less we come to believe 
in any fate or destiny except the destiny of character." Though the 
recipient of many honors and emoluments, it is the "destiny of character" 
by which he is chiefly remembered. Many beautiful anecdotes are told 
of his tender ministries and his love for the little children. The following 
appeared in the "British Weekly": — 

"A little girl of five who had been a favorite with Phillips Brooks 
made a striking remark on his death. When the Bishop died her mother 
came into the room where the child was playing, and holding the bright 
little face between her hands, said tearfully, 'Bishop Brooks has gone to 
heaven.' 'Oh, mamma,' was the reply, 'how happy the angels will be!'" 

Dr. Allen, Bishop Brooks' biographer, says: "In one of the letters, 
the father 'regrets that Phillips could not have been with the family on 
the last Sunday evening when the boys recited hymns.' This was a 
beautiful custom which called from each one of the children the learn- 
ing of a new hymn every Sunday, and its recital before the assembled 
family. When Phillips went to college there were some two hundred he 
could repeat. They constituted part of his religious furniture, or the 
soil whence grew much that cannot now be traced. He never forgot 
them." His published works include many sermons, lectures and essays, 
and "Letters of Travel." He had the true poetic element in his genius, 
but the arduous labors and responsibilities of his position left him little 



208 FAVORITE HYMNS 



time for its exercise. As a hymnist he is known as the author of a few 
carols for children. His beautiful hymn on the Nativity was written in 
1868 for the Christmas Sunday School service of his own church. The 
music for it was written by Lewis H. Redner, the organist of the church. 
In 1892 Bishop Brooks' carol was given a place as a church hymn in the 
official hymnal of his own denomination. It is now included in many 
hymnals of other denominations. Following are three stanzas of this 
hymn: 

O little town of Bethlehem, 

How still we see thee lie ! 
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep 

The silent stars go by; 
Yet in thy dark streets shineth 

The everlasting light; 
The hopes and fears of all the years 

Are met in thee to-night. 

For Christ is born of Mary, 

And, gathered all above, 
While mortals sleep, the angels keep 

Their watch of wond'ring love. 
O morning stars, together 

Proclaim the holy birth! 
And praises sing to God the King 

And peace to men on earth. 

How silently, how silently, 

The wondrous gift is given! 
So God imparts to human hearts 

The blessings of His heaven. 
No ear may hear His coming, 

But in this world of sin, 
Where meek souls will receive Him still, 

The dear Christ enters in. 




John Leland. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

American Hymns. 



God sent His singers upon earth, 
With songs of gladness and of mirth, 
That they might touch the hearts of men, 
And bring them back to heaven again. 




Rev. John Leland (i 754-1841). 

HILE Rev. Thomas Allen was engaged in fighting the battle 
for religious and political liberty by his forensic eloquence 
in the First Congregational Church of Pittsfieid, Massa- 
chusetts, a Baptist minister, in the neighboring town of 
Cheshire, was forging his thunder-bolts for the ranks of 
the "Federalists," — and they were bolts of no common mould, for they 
were as original and peculiar as the mind of the man who wielded them 
with such telling effect. 

Elder John Leland was born at Grafton, Mass., on May 15th, 1754. 
He received his early education at a school taught by a "village dame," 
and thereafter continued the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, 
unaided by schools or tutors. He planned to make a career for himself 
by becoming a lawyer, but after he was converted, he accepted "the call 
from the skies," and ardently began and continued his labors for the 
conversion of those around him with such enthusiasm and God-given 
power that he swayed and carried with him great congregations as well 
as individuals. He was one of the most remarkable preachers of those 
stirring times, and his influence is said to have been equalled by his peculi- 
arities. He commenced preaching in Culpepper County, Virginia, at the 
age of twenty. The "poor whites" of his parish were morally demoralized 
and ignorant at that time, and to fix their attention upon religious truth 
or serious subjects of reflection, was a most arduous undertaking. To 



210 FAVORITE HYMNS 



get their attention he had to resort to very eccentric anecdotes and illus- 
trations, in which he managed to convey some religious instruction. What 
was at first a necessity became at length a habit, and his pulpit stories, 
and his odd, but impressive manner of telling them, soon attracted large 
congregations, and made him famous as a preacher throughout the State. 
He made an intimate acquaintance with the scholarly Jefferson, and by 
his burning words for liberty and his ability to sway the minds of men 
he became a powerful factor in the political fortunes of his time. 

During the year 1792 Eider Leland left Virginia and went to Cheshire, 
Mass., and ever after that year his name was interwoven with the history 
of the town. In 1793 he was associated with Elder Nathan Mason in 
the care of his new church, and he threw his whole soul into the religious 
and political efforts of the time. As the result of his labors there was a 
wonderful growth in the church, both in numbers and influence. In 
1789, when it first seceded from the "Church of the Six Principles," there 
were forty-four members. Eleven years later — in 1800 — the membership 
was 394. In 1819 Elder Leland was called by the Baptist church of Pitts- 
field to become their pastor; but preferring a broader field and feeling 
conscientiously that his work in the church was that of an evangelist 
rather than a pastor, he declined the call, and remained among his friends 
of long years standing. For more than forty-eight years he preached 
the Gospel in Cheshire and the neighboring towns, and when on the 14th 
of January, 1841, "he fell asleep," at the age of eighty-seven, he left a 
name ever to be revered, and he will long be remembered by the people 
of Cheshire as a wise patriot, tender friend, and eloquent preacher of the 
Word. 

Elder Leland was sometimes sorely tried because the hard-working 
people of his flock were so unresponsive to his earnest appeals, and they, 
in turn, had to make allowances for his many eccentricities. The follow- 
ing episode shows their need of mutual forbearance. 

Grieved by the faults and short comings of some of his people, in 
August, 1797, he decided to leave Cheshire for an evangelistic tour in 
the South. Appointments were made for a long distance ahead, but 
becoming more and more impressed regarding the people he had left 
behind, he finally cancelled his engagements and returned, declaring that 
he could not preach to Virginia with the sins of Cheshire on his back. 
The throng of his admirers who had bidden him a tearful goodbye gladly 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 211 

welcomed him back, and his work went on; but never, after his return, 
would he break bread with his people at the Lord's table, and it was 
necessary for the members to send every second month to adjoining 
towns for an "administrator' to conduct the Communion service. The 
discipline of the church had been strong, and the people could not submit 
to such conduct on the part of their pastor without a protest. But so 
firm was Elder Leland in the conviction that he was justified in the course 
he had taken that he was willing to submit to excommunication, if need 
be, rather than comply with the request of the "Ten Aggrieved Brethren." 
The matter was finally settled by a vote of the church that the hand of 
fellowship shall not be withdrawn from any member excepting for im- 
morality" — a remarkable concession for that time — and Elder Leland 
continued to preach, pray, and baptize among the people, as formerly. 

Many anecdotes, in which Elder Leland figures, are told, but the 
most famous of them all is the story of the great "Cheshire Cheese." 
We quote from Elihu Burntt's admirable version of the story. Referring 
to the ejection of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency, he says: "No man 
had done more to bring about this result than Elder John Leland, of the 
little hill town of Cheshire in Massachusetts. Besides influencing thou- 
sands of outsiders in the same direction, he had brought up his whole 
congregation and parish to vote for the father of American Democracy. 
He now resolved to set the seal of Cheshire to the election in a way to 
make the nation know there was such a town in the Republican Israel. 
He had only to propose the method to command the unanimous appro- 
bation and endorsement of his people. And he did propose it from his 
pulpit to a full congregation on the Sabbath. With a few earnest words 
he invited every man and woman who owned a cow, to bring every quart 
of milk given on a certain day, or all the curd it would make, to a great 
cider-mill belonging to their brave townsman, Captain John Brown. No 
Federal cow was allowed to contribute a drop of milk to the offering 
lest it should leaven the whole lump with a distasteful savor. With their 
best Sunday clothes, under their white tow frocks, came the men and boys 
of the town, down from the hills and up from the valleys, with their con- 
tingents to the great offering in pails and tubs. Mothers, wives, and all 
the rosy maidens of the rural homes, came in their white aprons and best 
calico dresses, to the sound of the church bell that called young and old, 
and rich and poor, to the great co-operative fabrication. 



212 FAVORITE HYMNS 



"An enormous hoop had been prepared and placed upon the bed of 
the cider-press, which had been well purified for the work. A committee 
of arrangement met the contributors as they arrived, and conducted them 
to the great, shallow vat, into which they poured their proportions of 
curd, from the large tubs of the well-to-do dairyman to the six-quart 
pail of the poor owner of a single cow. When the last contribution was 
given in, a select committee of the most experienced dairy matrons of 
the town addressed themselves to the nice and delicate task of mixing, 
flavoring, and tinting such a mass of curd as was never brought to press 
before or since. The stoutest young farmers manned the long levers. 
The machinery worked to a charm. It was a complete success. All the 
congregation stood in a compact circle around the great press. Then 
Elder Leland, standing upon a block of wood, and looking steadfastly 
with open eyes, heavenward, as if to see the pathway of his thanksgiving 
to God, and the return blessing on its descent, offered up the gladness 
and gratitude of his flock for the one earnest mind that had inspired them 
to that day's deed, and invoked the Divine favor upon it and the nation's 
ruler for whom it was designed. Then followed a service as unique and 
impressive as any company of the Scotch Covenanters ever performed in 
their open-air conventicles in the Highland glens. 'Let us further wor- 
ship God,' he said, 'in a hymn suitable to the occasion.' What that 
hymn was, could now hardly be ascertained. But, as was then the cus- 
tom, the Elder lined it off with his grave, sonorous voice. The tune was 
Mear, which was so common in New England worship that wherever and 
whenever public prayer was wont to be made, in church, schoolhouse or 
private dwelling, this was sure to be sung. It is a sober, staid but brave 
tune, fitted for a slow march on the up hill road of Christian life and duty, 
as the good people of New England found it in their experience. The 
Elder then dismissed his flock with the benediction, and they all filed 
away to their homes as decorously and thoughtfully as if they had at- 
tended religious service." 

The date of this unique event was July 10th, 1801, and the weight 
of the cheese one month from the day of its making was 1,235 pounds. 
In the early fall the cheese was carefully packed and in the care and escort 
of Elder Leland and Darius Brown, it was drawn to Hudson, and there 
shipped by water to Washington. Upon arriving at the White House, 
Elder Leland presented his people's gift to President Jefferson in an 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 213 

admirable speech, and the President responded with deep and earnest 
feeling to this remarkable gift, receiving it as a token of his fidelity to 
the equal and inalienable rights of individual men and States, and of the 
loyalty and devotion of the sturdy New England people, who, by their 
individual offerings, had made the greatest gift, of its kind, ever presented 
to royal or democratic ruler. 

Elder Leland wrote his own Epitaph, and in the village cemetery, 
at Cheshire, upon a shaft of blue marble, it is engraved: 

"Here lies the body of John Leland, who labored sixty-eight years 
to promote piety, and vindicate the civil and religious rights of all men." 

As a hymnist, Elder Leland is chiefly known by the familiar hymn, 
which has been in universal use in America, beginning with the stanza: — 

The day is past and gone, 

The evening shades appear: 
O may we all remember well, 

The night of death draws near. 

He was the author of some other valuable pieces of poetry, and about 
thirty pamphlets, but the great work of his life was that of a preacher 
and evangelist. During the sixty-eight years of his ministry he stated 
in his diary that he had traveled about 75,000 miles, preached about 
8,000 sermons, and baptized 1524 persons. He preached in 436 meeting- 
houses, several capitols and various other kinds of buildings, as well as 
in the streets and groves. His perseverance, expressed in the following 
lines from one of his hymns, which was a favorite among the people many 
years ago, at last received its reward: 

Through grace I am determined 

To conquer, though I die: 
And then away to Jesus 

On wings of love I'll fly. 

Oliver Holden (i 765-1844). 

Oliver Holden, author of "Coronation" and other popular tunes, 
was born at Shirley, Mass., in 1765. He was originally a carpenter by 
trade, but became a teacher, composer, and publisher of music at Charles- 
town, Mass. His music-books were most useful in their day. Hezekiah 
Butterworth, referring to the grand old tune of "Coronation," in his 
"Story of the Hymns," says: "I recently saw at Mrs. Tyler's, in Boston, 
the little mleodeon on which the tune was composed (in 1792) and I could 



214 FAVORITE HYMNS 



not but regard the instrument and its associations with devout interest. 
Perronet's words are inspiring, but they would have been wingless without 
the tune." Mr. Holden died at Charlestown, Mass., in 1844. Ke was 
the author of several original hymns, but is chiefly known as author of 
the familiar hymn on "Secret Prayer," beginning: 

They who seek the throne of grace, 
Find that throne in every place; 
If we live a life of prayer, 
God is present everywhere. 

Rev. Adoniram Judson, D. D. (i 788-1830). 

Adoniram Judson, the apostolic missionary to the Burmese, was 
born at Maiden, Mass., August 9, 1788, where his father was pastor of a 
Baptist Church. He graduated at Brown University, Providence, Rhode 
Island, in 1807, and was one of the five consecrated young men, namely, 
Judson, Nott, Newell, Hall, and Rice, who, on February 6, 1812, were 
ordained, and appointed missionaries to labor under the direction and sup- 
port of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
among the benighted people of Asia. On the 19th of the same month, 
Messrs. Newell and Judson, with their waves, sailed from Salem "amidst 
the prayers and benedictions of multitudes," and on the 17th of June 
they arrived at Calcutta. During the voyage Mr. and Mrs. Judson re- 
nounced their former opinions on the subject of baptism, and by so doing 
they became the pioneers of the noble band of missionaries who have 
been sent to the Foreign field by the Baptist denomination of America. 

By the hostilities of the East India company towards missionaries 
they were driven to the Isle of France, and afterward to Rangoon, where 
they arrived in July, 1813, and entered upon their life work in the Bur- 
mese mission. After the breaking out of the Burmese war with the 
British in 1824, Dr. Judson was violently cast into prison by the natives, 
and was kept in captivity until the Burmese capitulated to the British 
in 1825. During the eighteen months of his imprisonment his sufferings 
were so intense that he probably could not have survived the ordeal, had 
it not been for the ministries and intercessions of his devoted and heroic 
wife, Ann Hasseltine Judson. 

In 1823 he printed a Burmese translation of the New Testament, and 
in 1824 he completed a Burmese translation of the whole Bible. He also 
constructed a Burmese and English Dictionary. After spending thirty- 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 215 

seven years of arduous and self-denying labor in his adopted field of Bur- 
mah, he died after a long and painful illness, at sea, April 12, 1850, aged 
sixty two years, and was buried in the deep. The thrilling story of his 
life and labors given in his Memoirs, by Francis Wayland, and others, 
is one of the most interesting of all the biographies of famous missionaries. 
During Dr. Judson's painful incarceration by the natives, in the 
Burmese war, like Paul and Silas, St. Theodulph, and Madame Guyon, 
he solaced his hours with Christian songs. It was during this period that 
he composed his exquisite versification of the Lord's prayer, which is 
dated by the author, "Prison, Ava, March, 1825." It is comprised in 
fewer words than the original Greek, and in only two more than the 
common English version. It has been in common use in England, as well 
as America. We give it in full : — 

Our Father, God, who art in heaven, 

All hallowed be Thy name; 
Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done 

In heaven and earth the same. 

Give us this day our daily bread; 

And as we those forgive 
Who sin against us, so may we 

Forgiving grace receive. 

Into temptation lead us not; 

From evil set us free; 
And thine the kingdom, Thine the power 

And glory, ever be. 

Dr. Judson is also the author of two hymns for Holy Baptism, which 
are found in Baptist hymnals, one beginning, 

"Our Saviour bowed beneath the wave," 
and 

"Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine." 

Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865). 

Mrs. L. H. Sigourney was born in Norwich, Conn., in 1791. She 
conducted a school in the same town from 1810 to 1814, when she removed 
to Hartford, where she continued her work as a teacher. In 1819 she 
married Mr. Charles Sigourney, of Hartford, who died in 1854. Most of 
her subsequent life was spent at Hartford, and she died there, June 10, 
1865. She was a woman of lovely Christian character and superior in- 
tellectual and poetic gifts. She was the most distinguished of the female 



216 FAVORITE HYMNS 



poets of America a century ago. Her first publication was "Moral Pieces 
in Prose and Verse," 1815. This was followed by fifty-eight additional 
works. Many of her hymns have been used in the older collections. 
Her fine Missionary hymn, — 

"Onward, onward, men of heaven! 
Bear the Gospel's banner high;" 

is in common use in Great Britain, and 

"Laborers of Christ, arise," 

for Home missions, has been widely used. The beautiful poem from 
which the following is quoted, has also been in use as a hymn: 

Go to thy rest, fair child! 

Go to thy dreamless bed, 
Gentle and meek and mild, 

With blessings on thy head. 
Fresh roses in thy hand, 

Buds on thy pillow laid, 
Haste from this blighting land, 

Where flowers so quickly fade. 

Because thy smile was fair, 

Thy lip and eye so bright, 
Because thy cradle care 

Was such a fond delight; 
Shall love, with weak embrace, 

Thy heavenward flight detain? 
No, angel! seek thy place 

Amid yon cherub train. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

American Hymns. 



Let all the world in every corner sing 
My God and King! 
The heavens are not too high; 
His praise may thither fly: 
The earth is not too low; 
His praises there may grow. 
Let all the world in every corner sing 
My God and King! 

George Herbert. 




Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, D. D. (1808-1895). 

T a reunion of the famous class of 1829, of Harvard Col- 
lege, Dr. O. W. Holmes referred to his classmate, S. F. 
Smith, in these lines: — 

"And there's a nice fellow of excellent pith, — 
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith." 

In vain "Fate tried to conceal him," for he has gained a world-wide 
reputation, and conferred great honor upon his family name, by writing 
America's national hymn, and several other highly-prized hymns. 

Samuel Francis Smith was born in Boston in 1808, graduated from 
Andover Seminary in 1832, the same year in which he wrote his famous 
hymn, and for eighteen months was editor of the "Baptist Missionary 
Magazine." In 1834 he was ordained, and became pastor of the First 
Baptist Church in Waterville, Maine. He continued as pastor there for 
eight years, serving also as Professor of Modern Languages in Waterville 
College, now Colby University. In 1842 he became pastor of the First 
Baptist Church of Newton, Massachusetts. He was pastor there for 
twelve years and a half, and then Secretary of the Missionary Union for 
fifteen years, two of which he spent abroad visiting missionary stations. 
From 1842 to 1848 he was editor of the "Christian Review," and he was 
one of the editors of "The Psalmist," a valuable collection of hymns which 



218 FAVORITE HYMNS 



has had a wide circulation among the Baptist churches of America. He 
was also the author of several other meritorious works. 

Dr. Smith had a gift for acquiring languages, and during his life he 
became familiar with no less than fifteen. In his eighty-sixth year he 
was looking for a suitable text-book with which to commence the study 
of the Russian language. He lived to be eighty-seven years old, active 
and busy until the evening of November 16, 1895. On that evening he 
took the train for Readville, near Boston, where he was to preach the 
next day. Just as he entered the car, turning to speak to a friend, he 
gasped for breath, and fell backward in death. Thus suddenly trans- 
lated from the scene of his earthly labors to the world where there is 
"work without weariness," and time shall dispel the joys of kindred 
spirits, "Never, no, never!" we cannot doubt that he entered upon the 
realization of his wish expressed in the following stanza of his familiar 
hymn, "When shall we meet again ?" 

Up to that world of light 

Take us, dear Saviour; 
May we all there unite, 

Happy forever; 
Where kindred spirits dwell, 
There may our music swell, 
And time our joy dispel 

Never, no, never! 

The history of Dr. Smith's famous hymn, 

"My Country, 'tis of thee," 

is said to be as follows: Dr. Lowell Mason, who could not read German, 
placed a number of music-books brought from Germany by Mr. William 
C. Woodbridge, of which the words were all in German, in the hands of Dr. 
Smith, asking him to look them over to see if he could find any hymns 
or songs suitable for children, or any music for which he could compose 
hymns or songs of his own. In Dr. Smith's story of the hymn written 
for the "Outlook," and printed in the number for November 23rd, 1895, 
he says: 

"One dismal day in February, 1832, about half an hour before sun- 
set, I was turning over the leaves of one of the music-books, when my 
eyes rested on the tune that is now known as "America." I liked the 
spirited movement of it, not knowing it at that time to be "God Save the 
King." I glanced at the German words and saw that they were patriotic, 
and instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own, adapted 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 219 

to the tune. Picking up a scrap of waste paper which lay near me, I 
wrote at once, probably within half an hour, the hymn "America," as 
it is known everywhere. The whole hymn stands today as it stood on 
the bit of waste paper, five or six inches long and two and a half wide." 

Soon afterward he gave the song, with some others, to Dr. Mason. 
On the Fourth of July of that same year it was first sung publicly, at a 
children's celebration in the Park Street Church, Boston. From there it 
soon found its way into the public schools of Boston, and then into other 
schools, and into patriotic celebrations everywhere, and finally into the 
hymn-books of the various denominations. Today it is called the national 
hymn, not by any ceremonial of adoption, but because the people love 
it, and have accepted it as the most fitting expression of their own patriotic 
fervor. 

Dr. Smith is also the author of the well-known Missionary hymn, 
beginning: 

The morning light is breaking; 

The darkness disappears; 
The sons of earth are waking 

To penitential tears; 

The beautiful hymn beginning with the stanza : 

Softly fades the twilight ray 
Of the holy Sabbath day, 
Gently as life's setting sun, 
When the Christian's course is run; 

and all but the first stanza of the hymn — 

"When shall we meet again, 
Meet ne'er to sever?" 

Lydia Baxter (i 809-1 874). 

Lydia Baxter was born at Petersburg, New York, Sept. 2, 1809. 
Upon her marriage to Col. John C. Baxter she moved to New York City, 
where she continued to reside until her death in 1874. She was a woman 
of extraordinary piety, cheerfulness and usefulness. Through her religious 
zeal a Baptist church was organized in her native town, in which she 
became an active and successful Sunday-school teacher. In 1855 she 
published "Gems by the Wayside," a volume of Christian poetry, which 
had a large sale. She also contributed many hymns to collections for 
Sunday-schools and evangelistic services, which have attained great popu- 



220 FAVORITE HYMNS 



larity. She was an invalid for nearly thirty years, and often a great 
sufferer, yet she exhibited a spirit of resignation and cheerfulness not 
often seen in people who are blessed with health and prosperity. The 
secret of this constant sunshine of spirit is revealed in her beautiful hymn , 
beginning: 

Take the name of Jesus with you, 

Child of sorrow and of woe; 
It will joy and comfort give you, 

Take it then where'er you go. 

Her hymn, 

"There is a gate that stands ajar," 

has cheered many a weary pilgrim on the way to that "city which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God" — the goal of Mrs. Bax- 
ter's life of patient toil and suffering: 

Beyond the river's brink we'll lay 

The cross that here is given, 
And bear the crown of life away, 

And love Him more in heaven. 

The stirring hymn, 

"Go work in my vineyard," 
has also been very useful and popular. 

Rev. Joseph Henry Gilmore, M. A. (1834-). 

Joseph Henry Gilmore was born at Boston, April 29, 1834. He was 
Professor of Hebrew in the Newton Theological Institution in 1861-62, 
and in 1868 he was appointed Professor of Logic in Rochester University, 
New York. For some time he held a Baptist ministerial charge at Fisher- 
ville, New Hampshire, and at Rochester, but he is most widely known 
as the author of the familiar hymn, 

"He leadeth me! O blessed thought!" 

This is one of the many "Gospel Hymns" sung by Mr. Sankey, 
while he was associated with Mr. Moody in evangelistic work, which 
have been even more popular in Great Britain than in America, and 
have been translated into many languages for the use of missionaries in 
all parts of the world. The spirit of trust expressed in the stanza: 

Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, 
Nor ever murmur nor repine, 
Content, whatever lot I see, 
Since 'tis my God that leadeth me, 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 221 

finds a universal response in the hearts of all sincere Christians, of what- 
ever class or condition. 

The hymn was written in 1859, at the close of a lecture by the author 
on the twenty-third Psalm delivered in the First Baptist Church in Phil- 
adelphia. While the subject was being developed a little farther in 
Deacon Watson's parlor, Mr. Gilmore jotted the hymn down in pencil 
precisely as it now stands — save that the refrain was afterwards added 
by another hand — and passed the paper to his wife, who sent it without 
his knowledge to the "Watchman and Reflector," where it first appeared 
in print. Mr. Bradbury, finding the hymn in a Christian periodical, 
composed for it the tune with which it has ever since been associated. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

American Hymns. 



He is faithfu' that hath promised; he'll surely come again: 
He'll keep his tryst wi' me, at what hour I dinna ken; 
But he, bids me still to wait, an' ready aye to be 
To gang at ony moment to my ain countrie. 

Mrs. Mary Lee Demarest. 




Philip Paul Bliss. 

HI LIP Paul Bliss was born in Clearfield County, Pennsyl- 
vania, July 9th, 1838. His ancestry has been traced to 
John Bliss, who came from Wales, and married a daughter 
of Governor Arnold in 1670. They were early settlers of 
Connecticut. His grandfather, the third John Bliss, 
moved to Greenfield, Saratoga County, N. Y., and purchased a farm of 
one hundred acres; there being at that time but one log hut at Saratoga 
Springs, situated about seven miles from his house. In February, 1801, 
he walked from Greenfield to Newport, Rhode Island, for the purpose 
of submitting to the ordinance of baptism. He had sixteen children, 
twelve of whom were sons. Isaac Bliss, father of Philip Bliss, was one 
of twins. He was a man of devoted piety, of simplicity and tenderness of 
nature. "He lived in continual communion with his Saviour; always 
happy, always trusting, always singing." His character and example had 
much to do in moulding the character of his son. This father died at 
Rome, Penn., in the home of Philip. In after years, when Mr. Bliss sang 
his beautiful song entitled "My Grandfather's Bible," he usually prefaced 
it by saying, very devoutly, "I thank God for a Godly ancestry. " 

At the time of Philip's birth, his parents were living in the usual log 
home occupied by the early settlers of the mountain and forest region of 
Northern Pennsylvania. During his boyhood he had few advantages in 
the way of schooling. Five years, from the age of eleven to sixteen, were 




Philip Paul Bliss. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 223 

passed on the farm and in the lumberyard, toiling for his daily bread. 
A portion of the seasons during this period was spent in school, and every 
opportunity for improvement was eagerly utilized. In 1850, while at 
school near Elk Run, a revival commenced among the scholars, conducted 
by a Baptist minister, and he at that time made his first profession of 
faith in Christ, and united with the Baptist church near the school. 

In the winter of 1858, Mr. Bliss taught in the Academy at Rome, 
Penn., where he became acquainted with the family of Mr. O. F. Young, 
a thrifty farmer and a devout Christian man. Among his pupils were the 
children of Mr. Young. The eldest daughter, Lucy, was then about 
eighteen years of age. During the winter the spelling class, the singing 
school, and the choir meetings went on, as was customary in country 
villages at that time, and Mr. Bliss and Lucy "kept company." Ere 
long they naturally found they were necessaiy to each other's happiness. 
So, on June 1st, 1859, they were married, and during the following eigh- 
teen years they were most happily united in all the joys, sorrows, and 
activities of their lives. At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Bliss was a 
member of the Presbyterian Church in Rome, and Mr. Bliss soon became 
connected with the same church and labored efficiently with them in 
church work. 

Mr. Bliss was passionately fond of music from boyhood, and he 
eagerly sought and improved every opportunity, which his limited means 
would allow, for instruction in vocal music, and the development of his 
native talent in harmony. In 1860 he took up the business of a pro- 
fessional music teacher, and at the age of twenty-six he wrote his first 
song. In 1863 or '64 he first met Mr. George F. Root, of Chicago. The 
acquaintance then formed was one of the links in the chain of provi- 
dences that finally led him into the place which God was preparing him 
for, of a Gospel singer. From this time for eight years his occupation was 
the holding of musical conventions and the giving of concerts and private 
instruction in music in towns through the Northwest, and the writing of 
Sunday-school songs and tunes, and songs for sheet music published by 
Root & Cady. Mrs. Bliss accompanied him on his travels, and assisted 
him in his concert and convention work. In July, 1870, Mr. Bliss became 
leader of the choir of the First Presbyterian Church, of Chicago, and a 
few months later, the Superintendent of the Sabbath school. He con- 
tinued to hold both of these positions until he entered upon his work as 



224 FAVORITE HYMNS 



a singing evangelist. Dr. Goodwin, the pastor, said of him: "He was a 
gifted, sympathizing and efficient helper in all the work of the church. 
The highest devotional character marked all his selections, all his re- 
hearsals, all his leadership in the Lord's house. It was his invariable 
custom to open his rehearsals with prayer. He believed that the spiritual 
idea should be the all controlling one, and one never to be forgotten by 
those w r ho were to lead the praises of the congregation. He was a royal 
helper and leader in the Sunday school and in all the gatherings for prayer. 
All through his songs and his words of witness breathed the spirit of ab- 
sorbing devotion. During the last two years while engaged as'an evangel- 
ist, he was rarely present in the prayer-meetings of the church; but 
whenever he was there, almost invariably before he spoke or sang, he 
gave expression to the feeling that possibly he might be witnessing for 
the last time. To him the coming of the Lord was a Scripture truth, 
and he felt that the Bridegroom might come at any moment." In that 
dreadful moment, when the summons came to him so suddenly, we know 
that it found him watching, with his lamp trimmed and burning, ready 
to enter into the joy of the Lord whose praises would be the unbroken 
continuation of the chosen occupation of his earthly life. He was greatly 
beloved by his pastor, and among the many tributes to his memory given 
in his "Memoirs," by D. W. Whittle, none is more touching and eloquent 
than the one written by Dr. Goodwin. 

In the summer of 1869 Mr. Moody held a series of Gospel services in 
Wood's museum, Chicago. Mr. Bliss frequently attended these meetings, 
and Mr. Moody soon discovered his remarkable gift as a singer, and was 
greatly assisted by him in the service of song. In 1874, through the 
urgent and persistent solicitation of Mr. Moody, Mr. Bliss and Mr. D. W # 
Whittle were persuaded to enter upon the evangelistic work in which 
they were so very successful until Mr. Bliss' death. Mr. Bliss willingly 
gave up a lucrative position with fair prospects of advancement and afflu- 
ence, and consecrated all his gifts, as poet, musician, singer, and preacher, 
to the work of winning souls, "Till He come." After holding services 
in a number of leading cities and towns of the South and West, Mr. Bliss 
and Major Whittle were engaged to take up the work in Chicago, Sunday, 
Dec. 31, 1876, and after the Lord was through with them there, they 
were to go to England. They had been assisted by Mrs. Bliss, who had 
a sweet and culivated voice, and it was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Bliss 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 225 



should spend the Christmas holidays with their children at the home in 
Rome. After a few days of happiness with their family, and of earnest 
warning and entreaty to the unsaved among the townspeople, they bade 
their children an affectionate farewell, and started for Chicago on the 
train which bore them to their death in the Ashtabula horror in which 
169 passengers were precipitated to the bottom of a ravine by the break- 
ing of a bridge, some eighty persons being killed. The tragedy occurred 
on the evening of December 29, 1876. "It was the wildest winter night 
of the year. No element of horror was wanting. First came the crash 
of the bridge and the plunge of the eleven laden cars to the icy river-bed; 
then the fire which came to devour all that had been left alive by the 
crash; then the water which gurgled up from under the broken ice and 
offered another form of death; and finally, the biting blast filled with 
snow which froze and benumbed those who had escaped water and fire." 
Mr. and Mrs. Bliss perished in the awful wreck ; and no vestige of their 
remains, or anything that belonged to them, was ever identified. After 
the shocking news of their death became known to the public, there were 
many feeling and glowing tributes, in poetry and prose, from editors, 
clergymen, singers, and friends, to the memory of the departed song 
writer and his devoted wife. "None knew them but to love them; none 
spoke but to praise them." The editorial columns of the "Inter-Ocean" 
contained a glowing tribute, from which the following is quoted: 

"Mr. Bliss was the song writer of the Church and Sabbath School. 
He stood prominent among the earnest workers who have invested Sab- 
bath School music with cheerfulness, lightness, brightness, and briskness 
that were wanting in the old hymns, and who have added to them new 
pathos and tenderness. In words and music his compositions were 
adapted to the longings and wants of those he desired to reach. The 
illustrations were familiar, the methods were striking, the sentiment was 
an echo of the feeling in his own heart. He seized quickly upon incident 
or figure, or story, and turned it to good account. The relation of an 
army incident suggested 'Hold the Fort.' It was written on the impulse 
of the moment, and it has traveled the world over. It has been translated 
into not only nearly all the European languages, but into Chinese and the 
native languages of India. And with it travel others almost as popular: 
'What will the Harvest be?' 'Almost Persuaded, 'Only an Armour 
Bearer,' etc., etc." 



226 FAVORITE HYMNS 



From an article by R. W. Morgan, editor of "The Christian," pub- 
lished in London, England, while the writer was in America, the follow- 
ing is quoted: 

"'And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great 
lamentations over him.' Something of that kind has been repeated here. 
The lamentation is over two of the sweetest singers in Israel — Mr. and Mrs. 
P. P. Bliss — without even the mournful satisfaction of carrying them to 
their burial. I scarcely know how to write the sorrowful tidings which 
I have to send today. 

"I had gone to Canada for Christmas week, and returned on Satur- 
day night, (Dec. 30) to meet these friends in Jesus, and make some final 
arrangements as to their coming to England with Major Whittle in the 
spring. But on arriving in Chicago I was appalled to hear that they had 
perished on the previous night. Mr. Bliss was a saint, indeed, and his 
wife a true helpmate to him. 'A prince and a great man has fallen in 
Israel,' and of him and his sweet wife it may well be added, 'They were 
lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided. ' 
Their bodies have probably been burned to ashes, but they are themselves 
transfigured, and to us the hymns are transfigured also. We have been 
saying one to another that, read in the light of this fiery translation, they 
seem all changed to prophecies. How differently shall we now sing: 

'I know not the hour when my Lord shall come, 
To take me away to his own dear home, 
But I know that his presence will lighten the gloom, 
And that will be glory for me. 

'I know not the form of my mansion fair, 
I know not the name that I then shall bear; 
But I know that my Saviour will welcome me there, 
And that will be heaven for me.' 

How much more tenderly shall we now sing that childlike carol which 
was the one that took the earliest hold of us at home — 

'I am so glad that our Father in heaven 
Tells of his love in the book he has given. 
Wonderful things in the Bible I see; 
This is the dearest — that Jesus loves me.' 

"To us here it seems as if his patient and truthful voice was singing 
out of the darkness and terror of that wintry storm — 



'Brightly beams our Father's mercy, 
From His lighthouse evermore; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 227 

But to us he gives the keeping 
Of the lights along the shore;' 

and that he appeals with outstretched hands, on behalf of others — 

'Let the lower lights be burning, 

Send the gleam across the wave; 
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman 

You may rescue, you may save.' 

And now that he is gone how inspiriting will be the war-song, as we think 
how, trusting in the living God, he held the fort in death! — 

'Ho, my comrades, see the signal 

Waving in the sky; 
Reinforcements now appearing, 

Victory is nigh.' 

"A story was told yesterday of a missionary in South Africa going 
into a kraal to rest, and the first sounds he heard were from a Zulu singing 
this tune. So these stirring strains go round the world." 

In the eloquent address of Dr. Goodwin given at the memorial meet- 
ing held in Rome, the home of Mr. Bliss, he said: 

"At the farewell meeting in London, after the labors of Brother 
Moody and Brother Sankey were closed in that city, Lord Shaftesbury 
said that, 'if Mr. Sankey had done no more than teach the people to sing 
"Hold the Fort," he would have conferred an inestimable blessing on the 
British Empire.' Mr. Sankey bears witness that these songs laid hold 
of the English people with wonderful power. Major Cole says, 'the ragged 
children of London, children who are largely street waifs, living in the 
utmost ignorance and degradation, flocked to hear and sing these songs 
till they had ten thousand of them at a gathering. And to this day, they 
are to be heard on the streets, in the courtyards, stables, shops, factories, 
homes, everywhere. Mothers rock their babies to sleep with them alike 
among the rich and the poor. Nobility and peasantry find common 
inspiration in them, and to the suffering and dying of every rank they 
minister inexpressible blessing. But their grandest work, at home and 
abroad has been in preaching the Gospel and winning souls. I believe, 
with Mr. Moody, that God raised up Philip Bliss as truly as Charles Wesley 
to save men by singing the Gospel." 

Mr. Moody had engaged Mr. and Mrs. Bliss and Mr. Whittle to con- 
tinue a series of meetings which he and Mr. Sankey had been holding in 
Chicago, and he had expected to be present at their first meeting, on 



228 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Sunday, Dec. 30. But on that day Mr. Moody was obliged to take Mr. 
Whittle's place, in leading an inexpressibly sad and impressive memorial 
meeting, — the first of a number of such meetings that were held in Chicago 
and other cities. It was supposed, at that time, the two children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Bliss had perished with them, but they had been left at Rome, 
with their grandmother. Selections from Mr. Bliss' hymns were sung at 
all the meetings and many eloquent and touching tributes were given 
by clergymen who appreciated the character and the work of Mr. Bliss. 
On the 5th of January, a song-service was held in the Tabernacle, at 
Chicago, at which 12,000 people were present, four thousand of whom 
were obliged to remain on the outside. At this meeting Mr. Moody 
gave brief introductions to the hymns, which were sung by Mr. Sankey, 
with choruses by the congregation. 

In Mr. Moody's tributes, he said: 

"Once after the wreck of the steamer at Cleveland, I was speaking 
of the circumstance that the lower lights were out, and the next time we 
met he sang this hymn for me. It begins, 'Brightly beams our Father's 
mercy,' but still more brightly beams the light along the shore to which 
he has passed. It was in the midst of a terrible storm he passed away, 
but the lights which he kindled are burning all along the shore. He has 
died young — only about thirty-eight years old — but his hymns are sung 
around the world. Only a little while ago we received a copy of these 
hymns translated into the Chinese language." 

Rev. Dr. Goodwin, of Chicago, of whose church Mr. Bliss had long 
been a loved and honored member, in his address given at the memorial 
meeting in Rome, said: 

"I think I might safely call him the most joyous Christian I have 
ever known. There seemed always to be an open door between his soul 
and the city of light. As might be expected his hymns and music are 
full of hope and exultation. Almost invariably both songs and music 
swell and grow jubilant as they move on. Hallelujahs ring all through 
them. And not a few, however they begin, land us in the glory of the 
better country before they close. When the sweet singer put his magni- 
ficent voice into the rendering, charged with the fervor of his sympathetic 
soul, as it was his delight to do, they that listened had a hint of what the 
joy of the Upper Presence will be. Another trait of our brother's char- 
acter was his thorough unselfishness. Some of the facts respecting this 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 229 

unselfishness are very significant as showing how completely this spirit 
ruled him. Take that grand tribute paid him by Mr. Moody in the Tab- 
ernacle at Chicago last Sabbath morning. He stated that the royalty 
on the Gospel Songs and Hymns amounted to $60,000. He proposed 
to Mr. Bliss that he should take $5,000 of this sum and provide himself 
with a home. Mr. Bliss promptly declined the offer. They had agreed, 
as he felt, that whatever income was derived from the books should be 
devoted to benevolent uses. And he added, that if his Master was able 
to go without a home, he was sure he could, until some other way was 
opened to secure it. 

In his closing remarks, Dr. Goodwin said: 

"I name as a final characteristic that our brother was preeminently 

a singer of the Gospel. Taking both songs and music into the estimate, 

I think I may safely call him the Gospel singer of the age. Certainly I 

know of no one in the whole range of hymnology that has put Gospel 

truth into song with the clearness, and fullness and power which stamps 

the compositions of P. P. Bliss. Many of his songs, especially his later 

ones, are little else than Scripture versified and set to music. Take, for 

example : 

'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by,' 

'Free from the law,' 

'Look and live,' 

'Whosoever will may come,' 

'Hear ye the glad Good News from Heaven?' 

'Almost persuaded,' 

'Seeking to save.' 

There is Gospel enough in almost any one of them to lead a troubled 
soul to Christ. This is why, as Mr. Moody testifies, no songs so lay hold 
of people's hearts. In words and music they are surcharged with the 
very spirit of the Gospel. And herein lies the power which they are 
destined to wield in after years." 

Soon after the death of Mr. Bliss, Mr. Moody gave notice that penny 
contributions would be received from all the Sunday schools of America 
for the purpose of maintaining and educating the children of Mr. Bliss, 
and also for the erection of a monument to his memory. Contributions 
came in so fast that it was very soon announced that money enough had 
been raised. The whole amount of contributions received was $11,633.83. 
One little mission school in India sent $13, and the prisoners at St. Augus- 
tine sent $26. The scholars of a Sunday school in Edinburgh, where they 



230 FAVORITE HYMNS 



loved Mr. Bliss' songs, sent $53. The number of contributing Sunday- 
schools was 3063. $1,000 was appropriated for a monument, which was 
erected at Mr. Bliss' late home in Rome, and dedicated with very impres- 
sive services, on July 10, 1877. 

Among Mr. Bliss' popular songs, not previously mentioned are: 

"When Jesus comes," 

"Through the valley of the shadow I must go," 

"Over yonder, over yonder," 

"Down life's dark vale we wander," 

"The Light of the World is Jesus," 

"Hallelujah! 'tis done," 

"Have you on the Lord believed?" 

"Standing by a purpose true." 

Several popular hymns written by other authors have been set to 
music by Mr. Bliss. Among these are "Eternity," "What shall the har- 
vest be?" "Arise and shine," "Precious Promise," "What hast thou done 
for Me?" "It is well with my soul." 



CHAPTER XXV. 
American Hymns. 



Angels holy, 
High and lowly, 
Sing the praises of the Lord ! 
Earth and sky, all living nature, 
Man, the stamp of thy Creator, 

Praise ye, praise ye, God the Lord! 

John Stewart Blackie. 




N OUR survey of the hymnody of the Methodist Church 
we find that the abundant provision made by Charles 
Wesley was so excellent and satisfying, both in quality 
and quantity, that very few writers of note, of that 
denomination, have attempted to contribute to the volume 
of song, which, like a perennial stream, still flows on for the refreshment 
and inspiration of the great body of the church, which can never cease 
to realize the measureless debt it owes to the illustrious founders of Meth- 
odism — the Wesleys. 

The recent official hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church and 
the M. E. Church, South, issued in 1905, contains one hundred and twenty- 
one hymns by Charles Wesley. Many of his hymns are also included in 
the recent collections of other denominations. 

Rev. William Hunter, D. D. (1811-1877). 

William Hunter was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1811. He 
removed to America in 1817, and entered Madison College in 1830. For 
some time he edited the "Conference Journal," and the " Christian Advo- 
cate." In 1855 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Litera- 
ture in Alleghany College, which position he held for several years. He 
died in 1877. He was the author of a number of hymns, which appeared 
in his "Select Melodies" (1838-51); "Minstrel of Zion" (1845); and "Songs 



232 FAVORITE HYMNS 



of Devotion' ' (1860) . Several of his hymns are still in common use. Among 
these are: 



"The Great Physician now is near;" 
" Joyfully, joyfully onward we move;" 

and the hymn beginning with the stanza; 

My heavenly home is bright and fair; 
Nor pain nor death can enter there; 
Its glittering towers the sun outshine; 
That heavenly mansion shall be mine. 

"On January 10, 1860, the Pemberton Mill, a large cotton factory 
at Lawrence, Mass., suddenly fell in ruins, burying the operatives in the 
debris. Some were rescued alive; others would have been, but a broken 
lantern set the ruins on fire, and the rescuers were driven from their work. 
As they turned away, it is said that they distinctly heard some imprisoned 
girls, who had been brought up in Sunday-school, singing the refrain of 
this hymn: 

"I'm going home to die no more." 

Mrs. Fanny J. (Crosby) Van Alstyne (1823-). 

The only Methodist writer who has added any considerable number 
of hymns to the store already provided by Wesley is Mrs. Fanny J. Van 
Alstyne, who, though handicapped by blindness from infancy, is the 
author of more than five thousand hymns — quite as marvelous an achieve- 
ment as Wesley's six thousand five hundred. 

Fanny Jane Crosby was born in Putnam County, New York, in 1823. 
When six weeks old she lost her eyesight through maltreatment for some 
slight affection of the eyes. At the age of fifteen she entered the Insti- 
tution for the Blind in New York City. On completing her training she 
became a teacher in the same Institution from 1847 to 1858. While 
engaged in teaching she wrote many songs which were set to music by 
George F. Root, the well known composer. Among the most popular 
of these songs were "Rosalie the Prairie Flower;" "The Hazel Dell," 
and "There's Music in the Air." In 1864, at the request of William B. 
Bradbury, composer of sacred music, she began to write Sunday School 
hymns, and in this occupation she found her real life work. After the 
death of Mr. Bradbury she was regularly employed by Biglow and Main 
to write "three hymns a week, the year round." She has also frequently 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 233 

written verses for special occasions, reciting them herself with great spirit. 
Once she recited a poem before the Senate and House of Representatives 
to demonstrate the results of systematic instruction of the blind, being 
the first woman to speak in the Senate Chamber in a public capacity. 

Miss Crosby's facility in poetic composition amounted almost to im- 
provisation. She said, "They sing themselves to me, and I cannot rest 
till I put them down." She had a remarkable memory, and was a pro- 
ficient performer on the guitar and the piano. 

In 1858 Miss Crosby was married to Mr. Alexander Van Alstyne, who, 
like herself, was blind, and was possessed of a rare musical talent. Mr. 
Van Alstyne died in 1902. 

Mrs. Van Alstyne's hymns have been published mainly in several 
of the popular American Sunday School collections and I. D. Sankey's 
"Sacred Songs and Solos." Dr. W. H. Doane did some of his most suc- 
cessful work as writer of music for Mrs. Van Alstyne's hymns. At his 
request, "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" was written in fifteen minutes, to 
the melody with which it is inseparably associated. 

We are indebted to the New York "Evangelist" for the following 
interesting picture of Miss Crosby and her work: 

"Miss Crosby says of all the hymns she has written, 'Safe in the 
Arms of Jesus' is her favorite. To be 

'Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe on his gentle breast,' 

must be to her, as she tries to feel her way through the darkness and 
amid danger, a sweet protecting rest to look forward to. To many a 
sorrowing soul whose eye of faith has become dim by the mysterious going 
away of some loved one, has this hymn brought comfort and life. To feel 
that our loved ones are 'safe in the arms of Jesus' is indeed a precious 
thought. Walking through a village cemetery a few months since, I 
heard some sweet voice singing a hymn. It was beside a baby's new- 
made grave. Just as the young mother was turning away with tearful 
eyes from the resting-place of her little one, these sweet words burst upon 
her ear. Out of her own loving arms, but safe in the arms of Jesus. How 
many other hearts have found comfort in the assurance, and in the thought 
that by-and-by — 

'There by His love o'ershaded, 
Sweetly my soul shall rest.' 



234 FAVORITE HYMNS 



"You would naturally suppose that such a person must be very 
unhappy and gloomy, but Fanny Crosby is one of the most cheerful, 
happy persons in the world. When we saw her she was knitting an intri- 
cate piece of lace, which, on examination, was found not to have a mis- 
placed stitch in it. Her ringers moved busily while she talked in a modest 
way of the talent God had given her, and what a comfort it had been to 
her that she had been enabled to write words that had helped other souls 
on to heaven. Her whole face was illumined with a light reflected from 
His face (so we thought) as she told us the story of 'Rescue the perish- 
ing,' and the satisfaction it gave her to know it had been the means of 
bringing many wandering ones home to God. In a mission meeting she 
attended one evening the hymn was sung and at its close a young man 
arose and said that that hymn brought him to Jesus. Then he told of 
his wanderings, and how he had wasted his time and money in drink and 
those other vices that are sure to follow; but passing along the street 
one night without a cent in his pocket, ragged, cold, and hungry, he 
heard some voices singing: 

'Rescue the perishing, 
Care for the dying, 
Snatch them in pity 
From sin and the grave.' 

He followed the sound of the voices until he came to a building where 
there was a mission meeting. He went in and sat down in the back seat 
and listened to the words of that hymn, 'I was just ready to perish that 
night,' he said, 'but that hymn by the grace of God, saved me.' Loving 
hands ministered to him in Jesus' name after he had told them that he 
wanted to leave the evil life and become a good man. The workers for 
Christ 'wept o'er the erring one, lifted the fallen, and told him of Jesus, 
the mighty to save.' 

"When the young man finished his story he said that he had a great 
desire to meet the writer of that hymn and tell her what it had done for 
his soul. It was a singular coincidence that his wish was to be gratified 
that very night, and what a joy must have filled the author's heart when 
she was led up to the speaker and could take his hand and say, 'I wrote 
that hymn.' 

"After a day's jostling through the city streets, guided by some 
loving hand, when Miss Crosby returned to her quiet room it is not strange 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 235 

that she poured forth her soul in song. It was at such times as those that 
she wrote 

'All the way the Saviour leads me,' 



and 



'Saviour, more than life to me, 
I am clinging close to Thee,' 

'Through this changing world below 
Lead me gently as I go.' " 



While it is doubtless true of Miss Crosby's hymns that "Their popu- 
larity is largely due to the melodies to which they have been wedded," 
yet through this happy union of melody and song they are entitled to a 
high place among the many sweet Gospel songs, whose power over the 
hearts and lives of multitudes of people in all countries where the Gospe 
has been preached by minister or missionary can never be estimated. 

In a recent book by the Rev. A. W. Halsey, entitled "A visit to the 
West Africa Mission," he says: "One of the pleasantest features of the 
boat travel was the singing by the Christian men who composed the 
boat's crew. One familiar tune after another would float out on the 
night air as we made our way past Evune and Ubenji toward Batanga. 
This singing is a characteristic feature of the African Christian. The 
Bulu carriers who were with us much in the interior were singing con- 
stantly as we journeyed through the long day and they always assisted 
at the evening meetings with their songs. The Gospel song seems to 
have driven out the heathen song entirely in the life of the believer. At 
Elat we heard the scholars sing part songs admirably, their singing re- 
flecting great credit on the faithful teaching of the missionary and evidenc- 
ing what a mighty factor in evangelization is 'the Gospel in song.' " 

In Mr. Halsey's touching story of a blind native preacher, belonging 
to the Fang tribe, named Robbie Boardman, he says: "Robbie has a 
very kindly face. I wish you could see him as he sings or prays or preaches. 
His favorite hymn is 

"Jesus, the very thought of Thee 

With sweetness fills my breast; 
But sweeter far Thy face to see 

And on Thy bosom rest." 

"Robbie repeated these words to me in English, and they never 
seemed so beautiful. He will see no faces in this world, but in the many 
mansioned home he will one day see 'Him face to face.' Even now he 



236 FAVORITE HYMNS 



joyfully sings with us 'I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story, 
saved by grace.' He knows nearly all the New Testament by heart. We 
have a little hymn book in the Fang language. Robbie knows all the 
verses of the hymns and the numbers as well. He needs no book to lead 
a meeting. The hymns are the same as we sing at home, only the words 
are in the Fang language. One of the hymns we sang was 'He leadeth 
me.'" 

The blind preacher in the land 

" Where Afric's sunny fountains 
Roll down their golden sand," 

and the blind hymn-writer of America can join in the chorus of "Saved 
by Grace," and in 

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 
O what a foretaste of glory divine!" 

Thus with the persistent "Macedonian cry" which comes from "Dark- 
est Africa," and from all other lands where the dawning light of the Gos- 
pel is revealing the darkness and the need, is also heard in joyful notes the 
song of the redeemed who have been gathered from "the mountains wild 
and bare" into "the shelter of the fold," 

"And the angels echoed around the throne, 
Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!" 

Surely the great multitude, whom no man can number, who are 
now able to join in the refrain: 

I love to tell the story, 
'Twill be my theme in glory, 
To tell the old, old story 
Of Jesus and his love, 

should put to silence the criticisms of the learned and cultured leaders 
in the Church who would discard the "Gospel hymns," and compel "His 
little ones " to sing the stately hymns of the Church, which, though "meat " 
for the wise and strong, are not adapted for those who "long for the 
spiritual milk," that they "may grow thereby unto salvation." 

Many of Miss Crosby's hymns have been translated into foreign 
languages, and about sixty have come into common use in Great Britain. 
Among the most notable hymns are the following: 

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;" 

"I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice;" 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 237 

"Jesus, keep me near the cross;" 
"Pass me not, gentle Saviour;" 
"Say, where is your refuge, my brother?" 
"Thou my everlasting portion." 

The fascinating narrative entitled "Fanny Crosby's Life Story, Writ- 
ten by Herself" — at the age of eighty-three — is quite as remarkable an 
achievement as her poetical work, and the readers of the above sketch 
are referred to this work for a more intimate acquaintance with Fanny 
Crosby's wonderful personality. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

American Hymns. 



O Thou, to whom, in ancient time, 

The lyre of prophet-bards was strung, — 

To Thee, at last, in every clime, 

Shall temples rise and praise be sung. 

Rev. John Pierpont. 




William Cullen Bryant (i 794-1 878). 

HE Unitarian Church has never been dominated by the 
hymns of such a voluminous writer as Watts, or Wesley, 
and there has been a more open field in its midst for those 
who possessed the poetic gifts. 

Dr. Washington Gladden is responsible for the state- 
ment that "the largest number of the best hymns written within the past 
twenty-five years have been written by Unitarians." This is not to be 
wondered at, when it is remembered that the great majority of the more 
noteworthy poets of America belong to this Church — William Cullen 
Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wads worth Longfellow, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Jones Very — and that all of these 
have been drawn into the ranks of the hymnists. Henry Ward Beecher 
has well said: — 

"There is almost no heresy in the hymn book. In hymns and psalms 
we have a universal ritual. It is the theology of the heart that unites 
men." 

In the hymnals of the Unitarian Church are found hymns by all the 
best writers of other denominations, those of both Watts, and Wesley, 
being more numerous than those by any Unitarian writer, while many 
hymns by Unitarian authors are sung in the churches of other denomi- 
nations. The Rev. Duncan Campbell, B. D., in the introduction to his 
"Hymns and Hymn Makers," very aptly says: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 239 

"It would indeed be a most instructive object lesson on unity in 
diversity if we could bring together the hymn-writers represented in al- 
most any modern hymnal to sing their hymns together. Fancy a choir 
including within it Toplady, staunchest of Calvinists; Wesley, staunchest 
of Arminians; Presbyterian Bonar and Anglican Keble; Luther who 
left Rome and Faber who went over to it; Mediaeval monks and Charles 
Kingsley; Heber and Xavier; Watts, the Independent; Montgomery, 
the Moravian; Barton, the Quaker; Sears, the Unitarian; Newman, the 
Cardinal, singing side by side! Set these men to discuss problems in 
theology or questions of church ritual and government, what discord 
there would be! But singing together when not the intellect but the 
heart and spirit speak, they would make one music, for singing together 
men forget the non-essentials on which they differ, and remember only 
the passion for holiness, the enthusiasm for righteousness, the gratitude 
for mercy, the love for their Lord in which they all agree." 

In the sublime music of the universal choir, which will one day sing 
"the new song before the throne," the voices of all the saints, of whatever 
name or sign they may have been, will join in the one grand Te Deum of 
praise. 

Rev. E. C. Davis, an able Unitarian pastor, of Pittsfield, Massachu- 
setts, in a recent paper on "Unitarian Hymn Writers," says: "The true 
poets who have given us the great hymns, are the ones who have come 
into the real presence of God, and forgetting all the limitations of sectarian- 
ism, and religious provincialism, have uttered the great truths of life and 
the great aspirations of the human soul in the outflowings of simple, every- 
day language and symbolism. It has been the great duty of a few of the 
poets of our body to rise above the plains onto the mount of transfigura- 
tion, and in the midst of the glories of the spiritual life, to express in 
simple hymns the highest aspirations of the human soul." 

Among the great American poets whose hymns are sung today by 
many people among all religious bodies, the first in order of time is Wil- 
liam Cullen Bryant, who was born at Cummington, Massachusetts, No- 
vember 3rd, 1794. He entered Williams College in 1810, was admitted to 
the bar in 1815, but soon turned from the practice of law to literature. 
In 1826 he became editor of the New York "Evening Post," continuing 
in this position as one of the editors and proprietors for more than fifty 
years. Few authors have commenced writing at so early an age, and 



240 FAVORITE HYMNS 



continued writing so long. As early as his thirteenth year he wrote 
poetiy that attracted public attention and received high praise. His last 
poem was written at the age of eighty-three. "Thanatopsis," his most 
popular poem, was composed when he was nineteen. His reputation as 
a poet, a citizen and a patriot is too well known in America to call for 
any eulogistic comments. His poetry was first introduced to the British 
public by Washington Irving, and the following appreciative estimate 
of its merit is given by an eminent English authority, of a recent date: 

"There is no poet more essentially American, whose genius is more 
especially the product of native thought and culture than Bryant. He is 
the American Wordsworth; and his name has done for the rolling prairies 
and boundless savannahs of that great continent what Wordsworth did 
for his beloved lake country." 

Bryant's hymns were included in a little book published in 1864 
which contained only nineteen hymns. Though few in number, they 
possess the poetic qualities characteristic of the genius of their author 
and they have been widely used. Perhaps the one best known in America 
is the hymn from which the followiug stanzas are quoted: 

Deem not that they are blessed alone 

Whose days a peaceful tenor keep; 
The anointed Son of God makes known 

A blessing for the eyes that weep. 

The light of smiles shall fill again 

The lids that overflow with tears; 
And weary hours of woe and pain 

Are promises of happier years. 

For God has marked each sorrowing day, 

And numbered every secret tear; 
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay 

For all His children suffer here. 

The beautiful hymn written for the dedication of a church in New 
York is the best known of his hymns in England. Following are the 
first and last two stanzas: 

O Thou whose own vast temple stands 

Built over earth and sea, 
Accept the walls that human hands 

Have raised to worship Thee. 

May erring minds that worship here, 

Be taught the better way; 
And they who mourn and they who fear 

Be strengthened as they pray! 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 241 

May faith grow firm and love grow warm, 

And pure devotion rise, 
While round these hallowed walls the storm 

Of earth-born passion dies! 

The hymn beginning with the following stanzas is one of the finest 
we have for Home Missions: 

Look from Thy sphere of endless day, 

O God of mercy and of might; 
In pity look on those who stray 

Benighted in this land of light. 

Among the other hymns by Bryant in common use are the following : 

"O North, with all thy vales of green;" 
"As shadows cast by cloud and sun;" 
"When doomed to death, th' apostle lay." 

"Like one who draws the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

William Cullen Bryant fell asleep June 12, 1878, in the eighty-fourth year 
of his age, from the effects of a fall, after exposure during the delivery of 
an oration in Central Park, New York. 

Henry Ware, D. D. (1794- 1843). 

Henry Ware, junior, eldest son of Dr. Henry Ware, pastor of the 
Unitarian congregation at Hingham, Massachusetts, and afterwards Hollis 
Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, was born at Hingham, April 21, 
1794. He graduated at Harvard with high honors in 1812. He was 
ordained pastor of the Second Unitarian church of Boston in 1817. In 
1829, in consequence of ill health he received the assistance of a colleague 
in the person of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the same year he was ap- 
pointed Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Care in the Cambridge 
Theological School, a post which he held from 1829 to 1842, and exhausted 
by his arduous labors, retired to Framingham, where he died in 1843. 
His publications were numerous and on a variety of topics. Dr. Ware 
was a hymnist of a very high order. ¥/ith American Unitarians he ranks 
very high, and by them his hymns are widely used. Perhaps the finest 
is his Easter Anthem, Yv r hich is found in numerous hymn-books. The 
first line of this hymn is 

"Lift your glad voices in triumph on high." 

We quote the second stanza. 



242 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Glory to God, in full anthems of joy; 

The being he gave us death cannot destroy; 

Sad were the life we must part with to-morrow, 
If tears were our birthright, and death were our end; 

But Jesus hath cheered the dark valley of sorrow, 
And bade us, immortal, to heaven ascend. 
Lift, then, your voices in triumph on high, 
For Jesus has risen, and man shall not die. 

One of our finest hymns of praise is the one beginning with the fol- 
lowing stanza: 

All nature's works His praise declare, 

To whom they all belong; 
There is a voice in every star, 

In every breeze a song. 
Sweet music fills the world abroad 

With strains of love and power; 
The stormy sea sings praise to God, 

The thunder and the shower. 

This hymn is probably the best we possess for the opening of an organ. 
Among Dr. Ware's other fine hymns is one suitable for family gatherings, 
beginning : 

In this glad hour when children meet, 

And home with them their children bring, 

Our hearts with one affection beat, 
One song of praise our voices sing; 

and his hymn of "Supplication," beginning, 

"Great God, the followers of Thy Son, 
We bow before Thy mercy-seat." 

Rev. John Pierpont (17S5-1866). 

John Pierpont was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, April 6, 1785 
He graduated at Yale College in 1804, and after spending some years as 
a teacher, lawyer and merchant, he entered the Cambridge Divinity 
School, where he graduated in 1818, and until 1859 was engaged in the 
regular ministry over various Unitarian churches. When the civil war 
broke out in 1861, he became chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment, but 
his increasing infirmities compelled him to retire, and the rest of his life 
was spent in the Government employment at Washington. He died sud- 
denly at Medford, August 27, 1866, at the age of eighty-one. He has 
attained to a prominent position in American hymnody. The hymn by 
which he is best known both in England and America was written for the 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 243 

opening of the Congregational Church in Bartin Square, Salem, Massachu- 
setts, Dec. 7th, 1824. We quote the following stanzas; 

O Thou, to whom in ancient time 
The lyre of Hebrew bards was strung: 

Whom kings adored in songs sublime, 

And prophets praised with glowing tongue: 

Not now on Zion's height alone, 

Thy favored worshippers may dwell, 
Nor where at sultry noon Thy Son 

Sat weary, by the patriarch's well: 

From every place below the skies 

The grateful song, the fervent prayer, 

The incense of the heart, may rise 

To heaven, and find acceptance there. 

To Thee shall age with snowy hair, 

And strength and beauty, bend the knee; 

And childhood lisp with reverent air, 
Its praises and its prayers to Thee. 

His beautiful hymn on the "Garden of Gethsemane" begins with 
the stanza: 

O'er Kedron's stream and Salem's height, 

And Olivet's brown steep, 
Moves the majestic queen of night, 
And throws from heaven her silver light, 

And sees the world asleep. 



William Henry Furness, D. D. (1802- 1896). 

William Henry Furness was born in Boston, April 20, 1802. He 
was graduated from Harvard College in 1820, and from the Harvard 
divinity school in 1823. He entered the Unitarian ministry and from 
1825 for more than half a century was pastor of the First Congregational 
Unitarian church in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a voluminous and able 
writer on many subjects, and an eloquent and fearless advocate of freedom 
and peace. To a volume of prayers, called "Domestic Worship," he 
appended six hymns, one of which for Evening is one of the most beautiful 
and suggestive we possess: 

Slowly by thy hand unfurled, 
Down around the weary world 
Falls the darkness; O how still 
Is the working of Thy will! 



244 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Mighty Spirit, ever nigh, 
Work in me as silently; 
Veil the day's distracting sights, 
Show me heaven's eternal lights. 

From the darkened sky come forth 
Countless stars — a wondrous birth! 
So may gleams of glory start 
From this dim abyss, my heart. 

Living worlds to view be brought 
In the boundless realms of thought. 
High and infinite desires, 
Flaming like those upper fires I 

Holy truth, Eternal Right — 
Let them break upon my sight; 
Let them shine serenely still, 
And with light my being fill. 

The author's spirit of consecration which breathes through all his 
hymns is tersely expressed in the following stanzas: 

I feel within a want 

Forever burning there; 
What I so thirst for, grant, 

O Thou who hearest prayer! 

This is the thing I crave, — 

A likeness to thy Son; 
This would I rather have 

Than all the world my own. 

'Tis my most fervent prayer; 

Be it more fervent still: 
Be it my highest care, 

Be it my settled will. 

Among Dr. Furness' other fine hymns are the one for Morning be- 
ginning: 

In the morning I will pray 
For God's blessing on the day; 
What this day shall be my lot, 
Light, or darkness, know I not. 



The one on "The Soul," beginning: 

What is this that stirs within, 
Loving goodness, hating sin, 
Always craving to be blest, 
Finding here below no rest? 

and those indicated by the following lines: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 245 

"Father in heaven, to Thee my heart 
Would lift itself in prayer; " 

"Feeble, helpless, how shall I 
Learn to live, and learn to die?" 

Dr. Furness' fervent wish expressed in his lines — 

"What have I then below, 

Or what but Thee on high ! 
Thee, Thee, O Father would I know, 

And in Thee live and die" — 

was realized during his long life of usefulness, and in his death, which 
occurred in Philadelphia, Jan. 30, 1896, at the age of ninety-four. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, LL. D. (1803-1882). 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the well known poet and philosopher, was 
born in Boston, Mass. May 25, 1803. He was the son of a Unitarian 
minister, and for eight generations there had been a minister among his 
ancestors, on one side or the other. His father died when he was but 
eight years old, so that his mother and his aunt, Miss Mary Emerson, 
were the guiding influences of his early life. They were both women of 
superior character, and they set their stamp upon the life of the orphan 
boy, in his early years. He was trained in an atmosphere of "plain living 
and high thinking," and when he entered Harvard college at the age of 
fourteen, in 1817, he became "President's freshman," as the position 
was then called, doing official errands for compensation. During his 
college career he won prizes for essays and declamation, and was Class 
Poet. In 1823 he began to study for the ministry, and in 1826 was "duly 
appointed" to preach. After rilling some temporary engagements in 
small parishes, he was ordained in 1829, as colleague to the Rev. Henry 
Ware, Jr., of the Second Unitarian Society in Boston. Here he remained 
for three years, earnestly and faithfully discharging his professional duties 
while Rev. Mr. Ware was absent in Europe, or unfitted for his duties by 
ill health. In 1832 he resigned his position as a minister of the Unitarian 
Church on account of his conscientious scruples against the further obser- 
vance of the so-called "Lord's Supper." During the rest of his life he 
devoted himself to lecturing and literature. He gained a high reputation 
as an essayist, and lectured in forty successive seasons before a single 
"lyceum" — that of Salem, Mass. By his numerous books and pamphlets 



246 FAVORITE HYMNS 



he filled a large place in American literature, and exercised a deep influence 
on religious thought both in America and Europe. He is the author of 
a book entitled "May Day and other Poems," but his hymns are not 
numerous. The following hymn, which is found in many English and 
American Hymnals, is very distinctive and beautiful. 

We love the venerable house 

Our fathers built to God: — 
In heaven are kept their grateful vows, 

Their dust endears the sod. 

Here holy thoughts a light have shed 

From many a radiant face, 
And prayers of tender hope have spread 

A prefume through the place. 

And anxious hearts have pondered here 

The mystery of life, 
And prayed the Eternal Spirit clear 

Their doubts and aid their strife. 

From humble tenements around 

Came up the pensive train, 
And in the church a blessing found, 

That filled their homes again; 

For faith, and peace, and mighty love, 

That from the Godhead flow, 
Showed them the life of heaven above 

Springs from the life below. 

They live with God, their homes are dust; 

But here their children pray, 
And, in this fleeting lifetime, trust 

To find the narrow way. 

Mr. Emerson was permitted to join the " fathers," in whose memory 
this hymn was written, April 27, 18S2, at Concord, Mass. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
American Hymns. 



"We hail the Church, built high o'er all 

The heathen's rage and scoff, — 
Thy Providence its fenced wall, 

'The Lamb the light thereof.' " 

N. L. Frothingham. 






Rev. Frederick Henry Hedge, D. D. (1805-1890). 

REDERICK Henry Hedge was born in Cambridge, Mass., 
Dec. 12, 1805, and was the son of Levi Hedge, LL. D., 
who from 1800 was a teacher at Harvard College for 
thirty-two years, having served successively as Tutor and 
Professor. Frederick's mother was a grand-daughter of 
Edward Holyoke, President of Harvard College from 1737 to 1769. In 
1818 he accompanied George Bancroft to Germany. After spending sev- 
eral years of study in that country he returned to America and graduated 
at Harvard, as class-poet, in 1825. Three years later he graduated at 
the Theological School at Cambridge, and became pastor of the Congre- 
gational Church at West Cambridge, now Arlington, in 1829. In 1835 
he became the minister of the Unitarian Church at Bangor, Me. In 1850 
he accepted a call to the Westminster Church in Providence, R. I., and 
six years later took charge of the parish in Brookline of which his father- 
in-law had long been the well known and venerated minister. V/hile still 
pastor of the church at Brookline, he added to his parochial labors, from 
1857, for some years, the duties of Professor of Ecclesiastical History 
in the Cambridge Theological School. From 1872 to 1881 he was Professor 
of German in Harvard University. He died August 21st, 1890, at the 
age of eighty-five. 

Dr. Hedge was a most learned and industrious writer and author. 
In 1848 he published a large volume, "The Prose Writers of Germany," 



248 FAVORITE HYMNS 



which became a standard work, while the books, sermons, orations, essays, 
reviews, etc., which extend through a period of forty years, are too nu- 
merous to be mentioned here in detail. All these numerous productions 
are marked by the great ability, the vast erudition, and profound thought 
which distinguish this author, preacher, and lecturer. 

In conjunction with Rev. Dr., afterward Bishop, Huntington, he 
prepared and published, in 1853, "Hymns for the Church," a very suc- 
cessful hymnal for use in Unitarian Churches, where most of his own 
hymns are to be found. One of the most striking of his original hymns, 
which has found its way into many English and American hymnals is the 
one from which the following stanzas are quoted: 

"It is finished \" Man of sorrows! 
From thy cross our frailty borrows 

Strength to bear and conquer thus. 
While extended there we view thee, 
Mighty Sufferer! draw us to thee, — 

Sufferer victorious! 

Not in vain for us uplifted, 
Man of sorrows, wonder-gifted! 

May that sacred emblem be; 
Lifted high above the ages, 
Guide of heroes, saints, and sages, 

May it guide us still to thee! 

The hymn on "The Anvil of Affliction" is one of the best by this 
author. We quote the following stanzas: 

Beneath thy hammer, Lord, I lie 

With contrite spirit prone : 
Oh, mould me till to self I die, 

And live to thee alone ! 

With frequent disappointments sore 

And many a bitter pain, 
Thou laborest at my being's core 

Till I be formed again. 

Smite, till, from all its idols free, 

And filled with love divine, 
My heart shall know no good but thee, 

And have no will but thine. 

Dr. Hedge's several years of study in Germany, and his sympathy 
with German thought fitted him for his most successful and effective 
work, as a translator. His fine rendering of Luther's famous hymn, 
"Ein' Feste Burg ist Unser Gott," among all the many versions of this 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 249 



hymn, is the one accepted in America, while Carlyle's version is the one 
most commonly sung in England. Dr. Hedge's version: 

"A mighty fortress is our God, 
A Bulwark never failing," 

is too familiar to require quotation. 

Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, D. D. (1809-1870). 

Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch was born in Boston, June 18, 1S09, and 
was the son of Charles Bulfinch, a well known architect, who was the 
designer of the National Capitol at Washington, whither he removed 
with his family in 1818. The son graduated at Columbia College, in that 
city, in 1827, and at the Theological School in Cambridge in 1830. He 
soon entered upon the work of an evangelist at Augusta, Ga., and was 
ordained to the ministry in 1831. Subsequently he was pastor of various 
Unitarian societies, — at Washington, D. C, 1838; Nashua, N. H., 1845; 
Dorchester, Mass., 1852; East Cambridge, Mass., 1865. He died sud- 
denly, at the last-named place, October 12, 1870. Said the "Boston 
Transcript," in a fitting tribute to his worth: "Of a beautiful spirit, 
earnest convictions, sympathetic and devout nature, he won the respect 
and love of the people wherever he served, and was known by them all 
for his pure and blameiess life, and his conscientious and Christian fidelity 
in all professional and personal relations." 

Dr. Bulfinch was a good classical scholar and a most diligent writer, 
and he enriched the Christian literature of the religious body to which 
he belonged with many volumes of his prose and poetry, and many ex- 
cellent published discourses and magazine articles. As a writer of hymns, 
Dr. Bulfinch has had few superiors in the communion to which he belonged. 
Most of his poetry is of a deeply religious character, and is marked through- 
out by an unusual purity and beauty of diction and a high degree of 
spiritual fervor. Most of his sacred hymns and poems appeared in "Lays 
of the Gospel," 1845. Many of his hymns are now to be found in numer- 
ous compilations. The best known of his hymns is the one for "The 
Sabbath Day," which is in extensive use both in Great Britain and Amer- 
ica. Following are four stanzas of this hymn, which in some hymnals 
begins with the second stanza: 

Hail to the Sabbath day, 
The day divinely given, 



250 FAVORITE HYMNS 



When men to God their homage pay, 
And earth draws near to heaven. 

Lord, in this sacred hour, 

Within Thy courts we bend; 
And bless Thy love, and own Thy power, 

Our Father and our Friend. 

But Thou art not alone 

In courts by mortals trod; 
Nor only is the day Thine own 

When crowds adore their God. 

Thy temple is the arch 

Of yon unmeasured sky; 
Thy Sabbath the stupendous march 

Of vast Eternity. 

Among his other widely-known hymns are the one on "The Voice 
of God in the Heart," beginning: 

Hath not thy heart within thee burned 

At evening's calm and holy hour, 
As if its inmost depths discerned 

The presence of a loftier Power? 

The beautiful and pathetic hymn on "Christ the Sufferer," beginning: 

O Suffering Friend of human kind ! 

How, as the fatal hour drew near, 
Came thronging on Thy holy mind 

The images of grief and fear! 

and the one on "Bearing the Cross," from which we quote the first two 
stanzas : 

Burden of shame and woe! 

How does the heart o'erflow 
At thought of Him the bitter cross who bore ! 

But we have each our own, 

To others oft unknown, 
Which we must bear till life shall be no more. 

And shall we fear to tread 

The path where Jesus led, 
The Pure and Holy One, for man who died? 

Or shall we shrink from shame, 

Endured for Jesus' name, 
Our glorious Lord, once spurned and crucified? 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D., LL. D. (1809-1894). 

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born at Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 
1809. His father was Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., a distinguished clergy- 
man and author of that city. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Hon. 




Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 251 

Oliver Wendell of Boston. The son received his early education at Phillips 
Academy, Exeter, N. H., and graduated at Harvard College in 1829. 
He began the study of law, but abandoned that profession for the study 
of medicine. For the more successful prosecution of the latter, he went 
abroad in 1832, spending several years of study and practice in the hos- 
pitals of Paiis and other cities. In 1838 he was elected Professor of 
Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College, and in 1847 he was 
elected Professor in the same department in Harvard College, which posi- 
tion he held until 1882, when he became "Emeritus" professor. He was 
the writer of various works in connection with his profession, and the 
author of several well-known and very popular volumes of prose, but he 
is best and most widely known as a poet. His poems began to attract 
attention during his college life, and in subsequent years he frequently 
delivered original poems on anniversary, and other special, occasions. 
The first collected edition of his poems was published in 1836. Enlarged 
editions appeared from time to time and were republished in England, 
and during his long life of eighty-five years he became one of the most 
widely known of American authors. He was also distinguished as a 
popular lecturer. His writings excel in humor and pathos, and he stands 
in the front rank as a writer of songs and lyrics. His style is remarkable 
for its terseness, purity and point, and for an exquisite grace and finish. 
Although not strictly speaking a hymn-writer, a few of his hymns are in 
extensive use, both in America and Great Britain. The familiar hymn 
beginning: — 

Lord of all being, throned afar, 
Thy glory flames from sun and star; 
Center and soul of every sphere, 
Yet to each loving heart how near, 

appeared as a "Sunday Hymn" at the close of the last chapter of the 
"Professor at the Breakfast Table." Equally beautiful, and even more 
tender, is his "Hymn of Trust," which was written in 1848, and was also 
first published in the "Professor at the Breakfast Table." (Atlantic 
Monthly, 1859.) 

O Love Divine, that stooped to share 
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear! 

On Thee we cast each earth-born care; 
We smile at pain when Thou art near! 



252 FAVORITE HYMNS 

Though long the weary way we tread, 
And sorrow crown each lingering year, 

No path we shun, no darkness dread, 

Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! 

When drooping pleasure turns to grief, 
And trembling faith is changed to fear, 

The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf 
Shall softly tell us, Thou art near! 

On Thee we fling our burdening woe, 

O Love Divine, forever dear, 
Content to suffer while we know, 

Living and dying, Thou art near! 

The impotency of human skill to save the nearest and dearest of 
friends, when the last summons comes to them and bids them depart, 
was illustrated by the bitter experience of Dr. Holmes in his later years. 
Within the space of a few years his only daughter, his son, Edward, and 
his wife, who had been his beloved companion for many years, were re- 
moved by death. Six years after the death of his wife, the time of his 
own departure came, and he died at Boston, Mass., October 7, 1894. The 
patience and cheerfulness with which he bore his " burdening woe," until 
the last, was evidence of the indwelling of that "Love Divine, forever 
dear," which alone can cheer the stricken soul and make us 

'"Content to suffer while we know, 
Living and dying, Thou art near!" 

James Freeman Clarke, D. D. (1810-1888). 

James Freeman Clarke was born at Hanover, N. H., April 4, 1810. 
At the age of ten he was sent to the Boston Latin School, and at fifteen 
he entered Harvard College and was graduated in the famous class of 
1829, of which Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel Francis Smith, and sev- 
eral other now noted men were members. He graduated at the Cam- 
bridge Divinity School in 1833, and was pastor of the Unitarian society 
in Louisville, Ky., 1833 — 40, when he resigned his pastorate, and in 1841 
removed to Boston, and founded the "Church of the Disciples," which 
charge he held until 1850, and after an interval of three years resumed 
the charge, and continued in that relation through the remainder of his 
life. Dr. Clarke was an overseer of Harvard College from 1863 to 1888; 
Professor of Natural Religions and Christian Doctrine in the Cambridge 
Divinity School 1867-71; and Lecturer on Ethnic Religions 1876-77. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 253 

Harvard conferred on him the degree of S. T. D. in 1863. He is the 
author of a large number of important works, some of which have passed 
through several editions, and have exerted a wide and powerful influence 
in moulding the theological views and opinions of the day. Through 
his many contributions to the literature of his time, he gained the repu- 
tation, both at home and abroad, of being "one of the most erudite and 
popular authors of America." He had a catholic appreciation of all that 
was good in persons and institutions, which disarmed hostility, and was 
prominent in all the reform movements of his time. The text of his 
first sermon was '"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might," and he determined to adopt this text as his rule of conduct through 
life. He possessed a gift for poetry, and wrote several religious poems, 
besides a volume of translations of French, German and Latin poetry, 
" Exotics," 1876. He also compiled a service and hymn book for his 
own congregation, in 1844, to which he added several original hymns- 
In this "Service Book" "Nearer my God to Thee," and other favorite 
hymns of Sarah Flower Adams, were first introduced to Americans. One 
of the best hymns of this author is taken from his remarkable poem en- 
titled "Hymn and Prayer," beginning: 

Infinite Spirit! who art round us ever, 

In whom we float, as motes in summer sky, 

May neither life nor death the sweet bond sever, 
Which joins us to our unseen Friend on high. 

Following are two stanzas of the hymn as it usually appears in our 
hymnals : 

Father, to us Thy children, humbly kneeling, 

Conscious of weakness, ignorance, sin, and shame, 

Give such a force of holy thought and feeling, 
That we may live to glorify Thy name; 

That we may conquer base desire and passion, 
That we may rise from selfish thought and will, 

O'ercome the world's allurement, threat, and fashion, 
Walk humbly, gently, leaning on Thee still. 

Probably the most popular of Dr. Clarke's hymns is his pathetic 
appeal entitled "The Prodigal:" — 

Brother, hast thou wandered far 

From thy Father's happy home, 
With thyself and God at war? 

Turn thee, brother: homeward come! 



254 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Hast thou wasted all the powers 

God for noble uses gave; 
Squandered life's most golden hours? 

Turn thee, brother: God can save! 

Is a mighty famine now 

In thy heart and in thy soul? 
Discontent upon thy brow? 

Turn thee: God will make thee whole. 

Fall before Him on the ground, 

Pour thy sorrow in his ear, 
Seek him while he may be found, 

Call upon him, — He is near. 

The hymn by this author which is most widely used in England is 
the one beginning: 

Dear Friend, whose presence in the house, 

Whose gracious word benign, 
Could once, at Cana's wedding feast, 

Change water into wine, — 

Come visit us, and when dull work 

Grows weary, line on line, 
Revive our souls, and make us see 

Life's water glow as wine. 

He is also the author of two beautiful hymns for the baptism of 
children. 

Dr. Clarke died in Jamaica Plain, Mass., June 8, 1888. 



Edmund Hamilton Sears, D. D. (1810-1876). 

Edmund Hamilton Sears was born at Sandisfield, Berkshire County, 
Massachusetts, April 6, 1810. He graduated at Union College, Schenec- 
tady, N. Y., in 1834, and at the Theological School at Cambridge, in 1837. 
In 1838 he became pastor of the Unitarian church at Wayland, Mass.; 
then at Lancaster in the same state, in 1840; removed to his former 
charge in "Wayland, in 1847, where the remained until 1865, when he 
assumed the pastoral care of the Unitarian society at Weston, Mass. 
He was one of the ablest and most spiritual teachers of the American 
Unitarian Church, and his works have been much read and admired in 
other Christian communions. He received the degree of D. D. from 
his Alma Mater in 1871. In 1873 he visited England, where his writings, 
especially his most important work, "The Heart of Christ," secured for 
him much attention in religious circles. As a hymnist he is widely known 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 255 

as the author of two Christmas hymns which rank among the best for 
that holy season in the English language. The first of these beginning, 

"Calm on the listening ear of night," 

was described by Dr. O. W. Holmes as "one of the finest and most beautiful 
hymns ever written." The second, beginning with the stanza, — 

It came upon the midnight clear, — 

That glorious song of old, 
From angels bending near the earth 

To touch their harps of gold: 
"Peace on the earth, good-will to men, 

From heaven's all gracious King!" 
The world in solemn stillness lay 

To hear the angels sing, 

is the most popular in England, and is thought by many to be even better 
than the first. Dr. Morrison, of Milton, England, says of this hymn: 
"I always feel that however poor my Christmas sermon may be, the 
reading and singing of this hymn are enough to make up for all deficiencies." 
Dr. Sears was permitted to join in the song 

"Which now the angels sing," 

when his death occurred at Weston, Mass., Jan. 14, 1876. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

American Hymns. 



We have not wings, we cannot soar; 

But we have feet to scale and climb 
By slow degrees, by more and more, 

The cloudy summits of our time. 

Henry W. Longfellow. 




William Henry Burleigh (1812-1871). 

ILLIAM Henry Burleigh was born in Woodstock, Conn., 
Feb. 2, 1812. His father, Rinaldo Burleigh, was a grad- 
uate of Yale College and a successful classical teacher. 
On his mother's side he was a lineal descendant of Gover- 
nor William Bradford, of the Mayflower. He grew up on 
his father's farm at Plainfield, Conn., whither the family removed, and 
here he became enured to hard labor, went to the district school, and early 
cultivated his love of nature and his taste for poetry. He early espoused 
the anti-slavery cause and the temperance reform, and through all his 
subsequent life was actively and prominently identified with them both, 
while at the same time he pursued with marked success his literary labors- 
He removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1837, where he published the "Christian 
Witness," and afterward the "Temperance Banner." In 1843 he removed 
to Hartford, Conn., and edited an anti-slavery paper, "The Christian 
Freeman," which subsequently received the name of "Charter Oak." 
Going to Syracuse, N. Y., in 1849, he served for five years as the agent 
of the New York State Temperance Society, acting as editor, lecturer, 
and secretary. While here, he received an appointment as Harbor Master 
of New York. He accepted the position, fixing his residence at Brooklyn, 
where he died, March 18, 1871. 

Mr. Burleigh was a man of superior intellectual and moral power, an 
able and eloquent writer and speaker, and a supporter of all moral reforms. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 257 

His poetical pieces were contributed to various periodicals and journals. 
After his death his widow collected his poems in a memorial volume. 
His poems are rich with noble thought and refined sentiment, and are 
musical in their rhythm and glowing in their expression. He wrote many 
hymns, through which there runs a mingled strain of confidence and 
tenderness which is very beautiful. It is said that "Dr. Burleigh's pro- 
ductions are more widely known outside of his own denomination than 
by his own people"; also that "his hymns are more extensively used in 
England than at home." If this is true, it is perhaps because his fearless 
championship of movements which were unpopular in America has proved 
prejudicial to his reputation as a writer. Doubtless he will erelong re- 
ceive the meed of appreciation which he so richly deserves from his own 
church and country. From one of his most popular hymns, entitled 
"Still will we Trust," we quote the following stanzas: 

Still will we trust, though earth seems dark and dreary, 
And the heart faint beneath His chastening rod; 

Though rough and steep our pathway, worn and weary, 
Still will we trust in God. 

Choose for us, God! nor let our weak preferring 
Cheat our poor souls of good Thou hast designed: 

Choose for us, God! Thy wisdom is unerring, 
And we are fools and blind. 

Let us press on: in patient self-denial 

Accept the hardship, shrink not from the loss: 
Our guerdon lies beyond the hour of trial, 

Our crown beyond the cross. 

"A Prayer for Guidance " is said to rank next to "Still will we Trust," 
with English compilers. Following are two stanzas of this hymn: 

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace; 

Without Thy guiding hand we go astray, 
And doubts appall, and sorrows still increase; 

Lead us through Christ, the true and living way. 

Lead us, O Father, to Thy heavenly rest, 
However rough and steep the path may be, 

Through joy or sorrow, as Thou deemest best, 
Until our lives are perfected in Thee. 

The hymn entitled "Faith's Repose" is also of great merit. Follow- 
ing are three stanzas of this hymn: 

Father, beneath thy sheltering wing 

In sweet security we rest, 
And fear no evil earth can bring, 

In life, in death, supremely blest. 



258 FAVORITE HYMNS 



And good it is to bear the cross, 

And so Thy perfect peace to win; 
And naught is ill, nor brings us loss, 

Nor works us harm, save only sin. 

Redeemed from this, we ask no more, 
But trust the love that saves to guide — 

The grace that yields so rich a store, 
Will grant us all we need beside. 

His Morning Hymn beginning with the following stanza, is one of 
the finest we possess for that season : 

For the dear love that kept us through the night, 
And gave our senses to sleep's gentle sway — 

For the new miracle of dawning light 
Flushing the east with prophecies of day, 
We thank Thee, O our God! 

while his prayer for " Needed Blessings," beginning: 

We ask not that our path be always bright, 
But for Thy aid to walk therein aright; 
That Thou, O Lord, through all its devious way, 
Wilt give us strength sufficient to our day, 
For this we pray. 

is most devout and beautiful. 

In Dr. Burleigh's brave and busy life we find a full and sufficient 
answer to the pleading call of his poem, entitled "The Harvest Call. 
From this poem of ten stanzas the following hymn is taken: 

Abide not in the realm of dreams, 
O man, however fair it seems; 
But with clear eye the present scan, 
And hear the call of God and man. 

Think not in sleep to fold thy hands, 
Forgetful of thy Lord's commands: 
From duty's claims no life is free, — 
Behold, today hath need of thee! 

The present hour allots thy task: 
For present strength and patience ask, 
And trust His love whose sure supplies 
Meet all thy needs as they arise. 

While the day lingers, do thy best! 
Full soon the night will bring its rest; 
And, duty done, that rest shall be 
Full of beatitudes to thee. 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 259 



Rev. Jones Very (1813-1880). 

Jones Very was born at Salem, Massachusetts, August 28, 1813, his 
father, Jones Very, being a shipmaster. He graduated at Harvard College 
in 1836, and served as Greek tutor in that institution for the two fol- 
lowing years. He entered the Unitarian ministry in 1843, and continued 
in that vocation, though without a pastoral charge, a great part of his 
time being devoted to literary pursuits. In 1839 he published a 
volume of "Essays and Poems." From this work, and his poetical 
contributions to various peirodicals, have been taken his hymns, 
which, with certain alterations made by him or by the compilers, 
have been introduced into the Collections. In many of his poems 
there is the unmistakable element or master-touch which belongs 
to the higher order of genius, and there are those who consider him one 
of the foremost poets of America. His hymns are characterized by great 
ease and simplicity of style and remarkable purity and delicacy of thought, 
while they breathe a spirit of sweet and loving trust. The following 
exquisitely beautiful hymn has passed into various Collections: 

Wilt Thou not visit me? 
The plant beside me feels Thy gentle dew; 
Each blade of grass I see 
From thy deep earth its quickening moisture drew. 

Wilt Thou not visit me? 
Thy morning calls on me with cheering tone; 

And every hill and tree 
Lend but one voice, the voice of Thee alone. 

Come! for I need Thy love, 
More than the flower, the dew, or grass the rain; 

Come, like thy holy dove, 
And let me in Thy sight rejoice to live again. 

Yes, Thou wilt visit me; 
Nor plant nor tree Thy eye delights so well, 

As when, from sin set free, 
Man's spirit comes with Thine in peace to dwell! 

Very beautiful also is his hymn on "The Spirit Land," from which 
the following stanzas are quoted: 

Father! Thy wonders do not singly stand, 

Nor far removed where feet have seldom strayed; 

Around us ever lies the enchanted land, 

In marvels rich to thine own sons displayed. 



260 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Open our eyes that we that world may see ! 

Open our ears that we that voice may hear! 
And in the spirit-land may ever be, 

And feel Thy presence with us always near. 

"The Coming of the Lord," of which he wrote in his hymn beginning 
with the following stanza, was realized by him on May 8, 1880: 

Come suddenly, O Lord, or slowly come, 

I wait Thy will, Thy servant ready is; 
Thou hast prepared thy follower a home, 

The heaven in which Thou dwellest too is his. 



Rev. Samuel Longfellow, M. A. (1819-1892). 

Samuel Longfellow, brother of the poet, Henry W. Longfellow, was 
born in Portland, Me., June 18, 1819. His father was a greatly respected 
lawyer there, and surrounded his family with comfort and refinement. 
The younger brother, Samuel, graduated from Harvard College, in 1839, 
and, after a few years spent in study and teaching, entered the Divinity 
School at Cambridge, being graduated in 1846, in the same class with 
O. B. Frothingham and Samuel Johnson. He was first settled over the 
Unitarian church at Fall River, in 1848. His next pastorate was that 
of the Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, N. Y. He resigned this 
charge in 1860 for the purpose of seeking rest and opportunity for study 
abroad, and in 1878 began his last pastorate at the Unitarian Church of 
Germantown, a Philadelphia suburb. Resigning this charge in 1882, he 
took up his residence in the famous "Craigie House," in Cambridge, that 
had been the home of his brother, the poet, devoting his closing years to 
the work of writing his brother's biography. Mr. Longfellow died October 
3rd, 1892, and was buried from the old home at Portland. 

While a theological student, Samuel Longfellow and his friend and 
fellow student, Samuel Johnson,undertook to compile a new hymn book 
for Unitarian Churches. The book appeared in 1846, under the name of 
"A Book of Hymns;" though Theodore Parker, who was one of the first 
to use it m his services, was wont to call it "The Book of Sams." The 
book broke away from the old tradition of dull and heavy hymns, and 
included many fresh and beautiful songs of praise and trust that have 
since been admitted into other Collections. Among these were "Lead 
kindly Light," and many of the hymns of Whittier and of other American 
authors. In 1864 Mr. Longfellow was again associated with Mr. Johnson 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 261 

in the publication of "Hymns of the Spirit." In this Collection many 
of the hymns appear in an altered form, and numerous other changes are 
made from the book which was issued in 1846, witnessing to the growing 
theistic views and sympathies which both these friends had come to 
entertain, and which at length led them to hold to a pure Theism, and to 
.decline to take any denominational or sectarian name. 

While Mr. Longfellow's distinguished brother wrote but few hymns 
adapted in form to general use in our churches, he himself has employed 
his rare gift of song in this particular service quite exclusively, and many 
of his hymns are found in Unitarian Collections, while a number are 
widely used by other denominations. From a few of those which are 
well known in England, as well as America, the following stanzas are 
quoted : 

"A New Commandment": 

Beneath the shadow of the cross, 

As earthly hopes remove, 
His new commandment Jesus gives, 

His blessed word of love. 

O bond of union, strong and deep! 

O bond of perfect peace! 
Not e'en the lifted cross can harm, 

If we but hold to this. 

Then, Jesus, be Thy spirit ours, 

And swift our feet shall move 
To deeds of pure self-sacrifice, 

And the sweet tasks of love. 

" Prayer for Inspiration": 

Holy Spirit, Truth Divine! 
Dawn upon this soul of mine : 
Word of God, and inward Light, 
Wake my spirit, clear my sight. 

Holy Spirit, Love Divine! 
Glow within this heart of mine; 
Kindle every high desire; 
Perish self in Thy pure fire ! 

Holy Spirit, Power Divine! 
Fill and nerve this will of mine; 
By Thee may I strongly live, 
Bravely bear, and nobly strive! 



262 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Vesper Hyrnn": 



,Now on sea and land descending, 

Brings the night its peace profound; 
Let our vesper-hymn be blending 

With the holy calm around. 
Soon as dies the sunset glory, 

Stars of heaven shine out above, 
Telling still the ancient story, — 

Their Creator's changeless love. 



And "The Church Universal": 



One holy Church of God appears 
Through every age and race, 

Un wasted by the lapse of years, 
Unchanged by changing place. 

From oldest time, on farthest shores 
Beneath the pine and palm, 

One unseen Presence she adores, 
With silence or with psalm. 

O living Church, thine errand speed, 

Fulfil thy task sublime; 
With bread of life earth's hunger feed; 

Redeem the evil time! 



Rev. Samuel Johnson, M. A. (1822-1882). 

Samuel Johnson was born at Salem, Massachusetts, March 10, 1822; 
received his early education in the private schools in that city, and grad- 
uated at Harvard College in 1842, and at the Cambridge Divinity School 
in 1846. In 1853 he established at Lynn, Mass., an Independent Religious 
Society on a Free Church basis, and remained its pastor to 1870. Al- 
though never directly connected with any religious denomination, he has 
been mainly associated in the public mind with the Unitarians. He is 
classed among the writers of the "Liberal Faith," and is one of the best 
known authors among those who are commonly known as Theists. He 
was the author of many sermons, essays, and contributions to various 
journals, on religious, moral and aesthetic subjects, as well as other more 
extended works. As has been previously stated, he assisted Rev. Samuel 
Longfellow in compiling the "Book of Hymns," in 1846, and the "Hymns 
of the Spirit" in 1864. His contributions to these collections were less 
numerous than those of Mr. Longfellow but not less meritorious. Among 
his most highly prized hymns are those from which the following stanzas 
are quoted: 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 263 



'The Conflict of Life 



Onward, Christian, though the region 
Where thou art be drear and lone; 

God hath set a guardian legion 
Very near thee, — press thou on! 

By the thorn-road, and none other, 
Is the mount of vision won; 

Tread it without shrinking, brother! 
Jesus trod it, — press thou on! 

By their trustful, calm endeavor, 
Guiding, cheering, like the sun, 

Earth-bound hearts thou shalt deliver; 
Oh, for their sakes, press thou on! 



"Inspiration": 



Life of Ages, richly poured, 

Love of God, unspent and free, 
Flowing in the prophet's word 

And the people's liberty! 

Never was to chosen race 

That unstinted tide confined; 
Thine is every time and place, 

Fountain sweet of heart and mind ! 

And "The City of God": 

City of God, how broad and far 

Outspread thy walls sublime! 
The true thy chartered freemen are, 

Of every age and clime. 

One holy Church, one army strong, 

One steadfast high intent, 
One working band, one harvest-song, 

One King Omnipotent ! 

In vain the surge's angry shock, 

In vain the drifting sands; 
Unharmed upon the Eternal Rock, 

The Eternal City stands. 

The "One steadfast high intent" of Mr. Johnson's life having been 
for the upbuilding of the "City of God" on earth, we cannot doubt 
that he was permitted to join in the "harvest song" amid the glory 
and beauty of the "Eternal City" above, when, on February 19, 1882, 
he died at North Andover, Massachusetts. 



264 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Thomas Wentworth Higginson, M. A. (1823-). 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was born at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, December 22, 1823. He is a descendant of the Rev. Francis Higgin- 
son, the Puritan minister who came from England in 1629, and preached 
to the congregation of the first settlers in Salem. He was educated at 
Harvard; and was a pastor of the First Congregational Society in New- 
buryport from 1847 to 1850, and of the Free Church at Worcester from 
1852 to 1858. He was ever an active and ardent friend of the colored 
race, and not only ready to advocate their rights by voice and pen, but 
to lay down his life, if need be, in the great anti-slavery conflict. He was 
wounded in an attempt to rescue Anthony Burns in Boston in 1854, and 
was indicted with Parker, Phillips, and others, who were implicated in 
the same affair. He aided in the colonization of Kansas in 1856, and was 
a brigadier-general in the military forces raised to repel the aggressions 
of the slave power in that State. Having retired from the clerical pro- 
fession before the civil war broke out, he accepted an appointment as 
colonel of the first regiment of colored troops raised in South Carolina. 
In October, 1864, he was discharged in consequence of disability caused 
by a wound which he received in an engagement on the Edisto River. 
His later years have been devoted to literary pursuits. He has long been 
known as a prominent contributor to the "Atlantic Monthly," and other 
leading periodicals, and is the author of several popular works. The 
hymns and poems which he has composed are few in number, but they 
are marked by rare freshness and vigor of thought, and the purity and 
beauty of their style. Can anything finer be found on the subject of 
"The Mystery of God," than the hymn from which the following stanzas 
are quoted? 

No human eyes Thy face may see; 

No human thought Thy form may know; 
But all creation dwells in Thee, 

And Thy great life through all doth flow. 

And yet, O strange and wondrous thought! 

Thou art a God who hearest prayer, 
And every heart with sorrow fraught 

To seek Thy present aid may dare. 

And though most weak our efforts seem 
Into one creed these thoughts to bind, 

And vain the intellectual dream, 
To see and know th' Eternal Mind; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 265 

Yet Thou wilt turn them not aside, 

Who cannot solve Thy life divine, 
But would give up all reason's pride 

To know their hearts approved by Thine. 

And Thine unceasing love gave birth 

To our dear Lord, Thy holy Son, 
Who left a perfect proof on earth, 

That Duty, Love, and Trust are one. 

So though we faint on life's dark hill, 

And thought grow weak and knowledge flee, 

Yet faith shall teach us courage still, 
And love shall guide us on to Thee. 

Very beautiful, also, is his hymn on "I will arise and go to my Father" : 

To Thine eternal arms, O God, 

Take us, Thine erring children, in; 
From dangerous paths too boldly trod, 

From wandering thoughts and dreams of sin. 

Those arms were round our childhood's ways, 

A guard through helpless years to be; 
O leave not our maturer days, 

We still are helpless without Thee ! 

We trusted hope and pride and strength; 

Our strength proved false, our pride was vain, 
Our dreams have faded all at length — 

We come to Thee, O Lord, again ! 

A guide to trembling steps yet be ! 

Give us of Thine eternal power! 
So shall our paths all lead to Thee, 

And life still smile, like childhood's hour. 

The celebration of Mr. Higginson's eighty-second birthday was a 
notable event, and it was evident to his many friends, on that occasion, 
that the prayer expressed in the hymn just quoted had been fully and 
sweetly answered. May the "eternal arms" 

"A guide to trembling steps yet be!" 
"And life still smile like childhood's hour." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

American Hymns. 



How beautiful is genius, when combined 

With holiness, — O, how divinely sweet 

The tones of earthly harp whose chords are touched 

By the soft hand of Piety, and hung 

Upon Religion's shrine! 

Prof. J. Wilson. 




Rev. John White Chadwick (1840-1904). 

OHN White Chadwick was born at Marblehead, Massachu- 
setts, October 19, 1840. Leaving school at thirteen, he 
was employed for some months in a dry-goods store, and 
afterwards engaged in shoe-making imtil 1857, when he 
went to the Bridgewater State Normal School from which 
he graduated in 1859. Shortly after, he went to the Academy at Exeter, 
New Hampshire; next continued his studies for a year with a private 
tutor, and then entered the Cambridge Divinity School, from which he 
graduated in 1864, and in December of this year was ordained pastor of 
the Second Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. He contributed many 
papers, book reviews and poems to leading American periodicals. His 
poems are characterized by rare beauty and tenderness, and his hymns 
are among those most highly prized by the Communion to which he 
belonged. His long and faithful pastorate of forty years in the Brooklyn 
church was closed by his death on December 11, 1904. One of his finest 
hymns is the following, on "The Unity of the Spirit": 

Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless roimd 
Of circling planets singing on their way, 

Guide of the nations from the night profound 
Into the glory of the perfect day, 

Rule in our hearts that we may ever be 

Guided and strengthened and upheld by Thee! 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 267 

We would be one in hatred of all wrong, 
One in our love of all things sweet and fair, 

One with the joy that breaketh into song, 
One with the grief that trembles into prayer, 

One in the power that makes Thy children free 
To follow truth, and thus to follow Thee. 

Very tender and impressive is the hymn from which the following 
stanzas are quoted: 

It singeth low in every heart, 

We hear it each and all, — 
A song of those who answer not, 

However we may call. 
They throng the silence of the breast; 

We see them as of yore, — 
The kind, the true, the brave, the sweet, 

Who walk with us no more. 

More homelike seems the vast unknown 

Since they have entered there; 
To follow them were not so hard, 

Wherever they may fare. 
They cannot be where God is not, 

On any sea or shore; 
Whate'er betides, Thy love abides, 

Our God for evermore. 

Very beautiful also is the following hymn: 

Thy seamless robe conceals Thee not 

From earnest hearts and true : 
The glory of Thy perfectness 

Shines all its texture through. 
And on its flowing hem we read, 

As Thou dost linger near, 
The message of a love more deep 

Than any depth of fear. 

And so no more our hearts shall plead 

For miracle and sign; 
Thy order and Thy faithfulness 

Are all in all divine. 
These are Thy revelations vast 

From earliest days of yore, 
These are our confidence and peace: 

We cannot wish for more. 

Rev. William Channing Gannett (1840-). 

William Channing Gannett was born in Boston, March 13, 1840. 
His father, Rev. Ezra Styles Gannett, D. D., was loDg the honored pastor 
of the Federal Street, afterward the Arlington Street, Church, Boston. 
The son graduated at Harvard College in 1860; taught a year at Newport, 



268 FAVORITE HYMNS 



R. I., spent six months in the Divinity School at Cambridge, and devoted 
three and a half years, during the war, to work among the freedmen. 
After the war was over he passed a year in Europe, and after his return, 
two years more in the Theological School at Cambridge, graduating from 
that institution in 1868. He entered the Unitarian ministry, and was 
pastor at Milwaukee, Wis., St. Paul, Minn., Rochester, N. Y., and other 
places. He is the author of several religious works, and various contri- 
butions to leading magazines. He is also the author of some very fine 
poems, and hymns. Where shall we look for a sweeter, or more beautiful 
gem of a hymn than the following, entitled "God Ever Near?" 

God hides Himself within the love 

Of those whom we love best; 
The smiles and tones that make our homes 

Are shrines by Him possessed. 
He tents within the lonely heart 

And shepherds every thought; 
We find Him not by seeking long, 

We lose Him not, unsought. 

The spiritual insight of this author, which enabled him to see the 
hand, and mind and heart of the Creator in all His works, is manifest in 
all his poems, and in none more clearly than in the one on "The Secret 
Place of the Most High," from which the following hymn has been taken: 

He hides within the lily, 

A strong and tender care, 
That wins the earth, born atoms 

To glory of the air. 
He weaves the shining garments 

Unceasingly and still, 
Along the quiet waters, 

In niches of the hill. 

We linger at the vigil 

With Him who bent the knee 
To watch the old-time lilies 

In distant Galilee; 
And still the worship deepens 

And quickens into new, 
As brightening down the ages, 

God's secret thrilleth through. 

O Toiler of the lily! 

Thy touch is in the Man; 
No leaf that dawns to petal 

But hints the angel-plan. 
The flower-horizons open; 

The blossom vaster shows; 
We hear Thy wide worlds echo, 

'See how the lily grows.' " 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 269 

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). 

John G. Whittier, who has been pronounced by an English critic, 
"the most poetic of American poets," belonged to the Society of Friends. 
His writings, pathetically beautiful beyond those of any other poet of 
. America, have exerted an immense influence on the thought and feeling 
both of England and America, and are admired wherever the English 
language is spoken. 

His long life of eighty-five years, aided by numerous biographies, 
have made the principal facts of his life well known to the public. His 
first American ancestor came to Massachusetts in 1638, and the conver- 
sion to Quakerism took place in the second generation of the family, at a 
time when that sect was sternly persecuted. He was born near Haver- 
hill, Massachusetts, in 1807. His boyhood was spent in the simple rural 
surroundings of a country home, where he did his share of the many 
rough tasks incident to farm life, incurring, when about seventeen years 
of age, injuries from overwork, which resulted in permanent debility. 

Books were scarce in his home, and he received his first literary im- 
pulse from the poems of Burns, lent him by his schoolmaster, when he 
was fourteen, and in his father's meadow the truth that " the pen is mightier 
than the sword" — or the scythe — began to dawn upon him with its com- 
pelling power. In a reminiscence of this prophetic impulse he says: 

"How oft that day, with fond delay, 

I sought the maple's shadow; 
And sang with Burns the hours away, 

Forgetful of the meadow." 

Encouraged by his elder sister, he began to write verses, some of 
which she sent to William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Newburyport 
"Free Press," who was so struck by their quality that he quickly made 
the acquaintance of his young contributor — an acquaintance which rip- 
ened into firm friendship and led to Whittier's adopting Journalism as a 
profession. Though laboring under the disadvantage of a meagre edu- 
cation, and a victim of ill-health, he became the successful journalist, 
editor, and poet of world-wide fame. 

He was an ardent abolitionist, and by his pen did much to promote 
the anti-slavery crusade, which brought him no little persecution; but in 
his last years he was able to see and enjoy the abundant fruitage of his 
arduous and faithful labors in behalf of suffering and oppressed humanity. 



270 FAVORITE HYMNS 



Phoebe Cary writes of the impression made upon his contemporaries 
by the poet's character — 

"But not thy strains with courage rife, 
Nor holiest hymns, shall rank above 

The rhythmic beauty of thy life, 
Itself a canticle of love." 

Whittier was a poet of the people. Though fitted, himself, to associate 
with the learned and cultured people of his day, he was always able to 
remain in full sympathy with the least cultivated, and those in the hum- 
blest station. 

Notwithstanding the extensive use of Mr. Whittier's poems as hymns 
for congregational use, he modestly says concerning himself: "I am really 
not a hymn-writer, for the good reason that I know nothing of music. 
Only a very few of my pieces were written for singing. A good hymn 
is the best use to which poetry can be devoted, but I do not claim that I 
have succeeded in composing one." "However," John Julian adds, 
"these pieces are characterized by rich poetic beauty, sweet tenderness, 
and deep sympathy with human kind." 

Whittier's greatest hymn is one extending to thirty-nine verses, 
called "Our Master," from which many contributions have been taken. 
One of the most beautiful and widely used of his hymns is the one begin- 
ning with the stanza : 

Immortal Love, forever Full, 

Forever flowing free, 
Forever shared, forever whole, 

A never-ebbing sea. 

Among others that are now in common use are his prayer, beginning: 

"Dear Lord and Father of mankind, 

Forgive our feverish ways; 
Reclothe us in our rightful mind; 
In purer lives Thy service find, 

In deeper rev'rence, praise." 

The hymn beginning with the stanza: — 

Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord, 

What may Thy service be? 
Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word, 

But simply following Thee. 

His beautiful "Almsgiving" hymn, from which we quote the first 
two stanzas: 

Thine are all the gifts, O God! 
Thine the broken bread; 



AND THEIR AUTHORS 271 



Let the naked feet be shod, 
And the starving fed. 

Let Thy children, by Thy grace, 

Give as they abound, 
Till the poor have breathing-space, 

And the lost are found. 



And his fine hymn on "Submission" 



All as God wills! who wisely heeds 

To give or to withhold, 
And knoweth more of all my needs 

Than all my prayers have told. 

Enough that blessings undeserved 

Have marked my erring track; 
That whereso'er my feet have swerved, 

Thy chastening turned me back; 

That death seems but a covered way 

Which opens into light, 
Wherein no blinded child can stray 

Beyond the Father's sight. 

In a stanza of his hymn, beginning: 

I bow my forehead in the dust, 

I veil my eyes for shame, 
And urge in trembling self-distrust 

A prayer without a claim. 

Whittier could say, as he looked forward to the future, after many 
years of strenuous labor and patient endurance: 

I know not what the future hath 

Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 

His mercy underlies. 
And so beside the silent sea 

I wait the muffled oar; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 

On Sept. 7, 1892, the "muffled oar," for which he had waited so long, 
bore him over the "silent sea," to the other shore, and in that last hour 
he must have realized in his own experience that death is "but a covered 
way which opens into light." 

He died in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, but the last years of 
his life were spent quietly with his cousins at "Oak Knoll," Danvers, Mass. 

Miss Phoebe Cary (i 824-1871). 

Phoebe Cary was the younger of two gifted sisters, the fame of whose 
literary works is known both at home and abroad. As poets they were 



272 FAVORITE HYMNS 



nearly of equal merit. The story of their courageous move from their 
rural western home in Ohio to New York; their life in the metropolis; 
their mutual affection, and attractive personality won for them the ad- 
miring and sympathetic interest of a large circle of friends. Phoebe 
Cary died at Newport, within six months after the death of her sister. 
Her works include "Poems and Parodies," 1854, and "Poems of Faith, 
Hope and Love," 1868. Her poem: — 

One sweetly solemn thought 

Comes to me o'er and o'er, — 
Nearer my home to-day am I 

Than ever I've been before, 

though not intended for public use, has won universal acceptance and 
popularity, as a hymn. She says "It was written in the little, back 
third story bed-room, one Sabbath morning in 1852," on her return from 
Church. 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Adams, Sarah Flower 85 

Addison, Joseph 23 

Alexander, Mrs. Cecil (Humphrey).. 128 

Alexander, James Waddell 189 

Alford, Henry 102 

Allen, William 172 

Ambrose, St 3 

Anatolius, St 4 

Andrew, St. of Crete 5 

Aquinas, St. Thomas 12 

Auber, Harriet 62 

Bacon, Leonard 178 

Baker, Sir Henry Williams 125 

Bakewell, John 41 

Ballard, Addison 184 

Barbauld, Mrs. Anna Letitia 54 

Barton, Bernard 67 

Baring-Gould 150 

Baxter, Lydia 219 

Bede, The Venerable 6 

Beddome, Benjamin 37 

Bernard, of Clairvaux 10 

Bernard, of Cluny 11 

Biekersteth, Edward Henry 142 

Bliss, Philip Paul 222 

Bode, John Ernest 117 

Bonar, Horatius 94 

Borthwick, Jane 108 

Bowring, Sir John 77 

Brewer, Dr. E. C 93 

Bridges, Matthew 81 

Brooks, Phillips 206 

Brown, Phoebe Hinsdale 170 

Browning, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett . . 97 

Brvant, William Cullen 238 

Bulfmch, Stephen Greenleaf 249 

Burleigh, William Henry 256 

Burns, James Drummond 130 

Byles, Mather 168 

Cary, Phoebe Miss 271 

Cawood, John 63 

Cennick, John 40 

Chadwick, John White 666 

Charles, Mrs. Elizabeth 148 

Clarke, James Freeman 252 

Clement, of Alexandria 1 

Clephane, Miss Elizabeth Cecilia. . . 149 

Conder, Josiah 72 

Cowper, William 47 

Coxe, Arthur Cleveland 204 

Crewdson, Mrs. Jane 101 

Crosswell, William 200 

Dayman, Edward Arthur 91 

Davies, Samuel 186 

Deck, James George 84 

Dickson, David 17 

Dix, William Chatterton 159 

Doane, George Washington 198 

Doddridge, Philip 29 

Downton, Henry 118 

Duffield, George 191 

Dwight, Timothy 169 



PAGE 

Edmeston, James 73 

Ellerton, John 146 

Elliott, Miss Charlotte 70 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo 245 

Everest, Charles William 203 

Faber, Frederick William Ill 

Fawcett, John 51 

Fortunatus, V. H. C 5 

Furness, William Henry 243 

Gannett, William Channing 267 

Gerhardt, Paul 19 

Gill, Thomas Hornblower 122 

Gilmore, Joseph Henry 220 

Gladden, Washington 184 

Gould, Sabine-Baring (See Baring- 
Gould) 150 

Grant, Sir Robert 67 

Grigg, Joseph 41 

Gurney, John Hampden 83 

Guyon, Madame 21 

Hastings, Thomas 187 

Havergal, Frances Ridley Miss 155 

Haweis, Thomas 49 

Heber, Reginald 65 

Hedge, Frederick Henry 247 

Hemans, Mrs. Felicia Dorothea 78 

Kigginson, Thomas Wentworth 264 

Holden, Oliver 213 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 250 

How, William V^alsham 134 

Hunter, William 231 

Huntingdon, Lady 32 

Hyde, Abigail Bradley 177 

Irons, William Josiah 108 

John, St. of Damascus 6 

Johnson, Samuel 262 

Joseph St., the Hymnographer 7 

Judson, Adoniram 214 

Keble, John 75 

Kelly, Thomas 56 

Ken, Thomas 20 

Key, Francis Scott 194 

Leland, John 209 

Longfellow, Samuel 280 

Luke, Mrs. Jemima 109 

Luther, Martin 14 

Lyte, Henry Francis 79 

Mant, Richard 63 

Matheson, George 162 

McCheyne, Robert Murray 107 

Medley, Samuel 50 

Milman, Henry Hart 73 

Moore, Thomas 64 

Monsell, John Samuel Bewley 104 

Montgomery, James 59 

Muhlenberg, William Augustus 196 



274 



FAVORITE HYMNS. 



PAGE 

Neale, John Mason 1,119 

Newman, John Henry 81 

Newton, John 43 

Occum, Samson 187 

Olivers, Thomas 42 

Palgrave, Francis Turner 135 

Palmer, Ray 180 

Perronet, Edward 45 

Pierpoint, Folliott Sandford 154 

Pierpont, John 242 

Plumptre, Edward Hayes 127 

Pope, Alexander 26 

Prentiss, Elizabeth Payson 193 

Procter, Anne Adelaide 137 

Prudentius, Aurelius C 3 

Rawson, George 90 

Robert II, of France 9 

Robinson, Robert 50 

Ryland, John 55 

Saxby, Mrs. Jane Euphemia 105 

Schmolck, Benjamin 23 

Scudder, Miss Eliza 205 

Sears Edward Hamilton 254 

Sigourney, Lydia Huntley 215 

Smith, Samuel Francis 217 

Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn 116 

Steele, Miss Anne 35 

Stennett, Samuel 46 

Stone, Samuel John 161 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher 201 



PAGE 

Strong, Nathan 168 

Swam, Joseph 55 

Tappan, William Bingham 177 

Tate, Nahum 22 

Tennyson, Alfred 98 

Tersteegen, Gerhardt 27 

Theodulph St., of Orleans 7 

Thomas, of Celano 13 

Turing, Godfrey 131 

Toplady, Augustus Montague 53 

Trench, Richard Chenevix 91 

Tuttiett, Lawrence 144 

Twells, Henry 132 

Van Alstyne, Fanny J. (Crosby) .... 232 

Very, Jones 259 

Ware, Henry 241 

Waring, Miss Anna Letitia. 124 

Watts, Isaac 24 

The Wesleys 30 

Wesley, Charles 34 

Wesley, John 31 

White, Henry Kirk 69 

Whiting, William 143 

Whittier, John Greenleaf 269 

Williams, Miss Helen Maria 56 

Williams, William 39 

Wolcott, Samuel 183 

Wordsworth, Christopher 87 

Xavier, Francis 15 

Young, Andrew 92 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES. 



PAGE 

A charge to keep I have 35 

A hymn of glory let us sing 6 

A mighty fortress is our God 15, 249 

A pilgrim and a stranger 19 

Abide not in the realm of dreams. . 258 
Abide with me: fast falls the even- 
tide 80 

According to Thy gracious word ... 62 

Again the morn of gladness 148 

All as God wills! who wisely heeds. 271 

All glory, land and honor 7 

All hail the power of Jesus name ... 46 

All nature's works His praise declare 242 

All the way the Saviour leads me . . 235 

Alleluia! Alleluia 89 

Alleluia! sing to Jesus 160 

Almighty Father, heaven and earth 91 

Almighty God Thy word is cast 63 

Almost Persuaded 229 

Amazing grace- how sweet the sound 45 

And canst thou, sinner, slight 178 

Angels from the realms of glory. ... 62 

Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat. 45 

Arm these Thy Soldiers, mighty Lord 89 

As oft with worn and weary feet ... 73 

As shadows cast by cloud and sun . . 241 

As with gladness men of old 159 

At even, ere the sun was set 133 

Awake, my soul, and Math the sun. . 21 

Awake, my soul, in joyful lays 51 

Awake, my soul, lift up thine eyes. 54 

Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve 30 

Awaked by Sinai's awful sound .... 187 

Before Jehovah's awful throne 26 

Behold a stranger at the door 41 

Behold the glories of the Lamb 25 

Beneath the cross of Jesus 150 

Beneath the shadow of the cross.. . . 261 

Beneath Thy hammer, Lord, I lie. . 248 

Bethlehem, not the least of cities. . 4 

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. . . . 236 
Blessed night, when Bethlehem's 

plain 97 

Blest are the pure in heart 77 

Blest be the tie that binds 52 

Blow ye the trumpet, blow 54 

Bound upon the accursed tree 75 

Bread of Heaven, on Thee we feed. 73 

Bread of the world, in mercy broken 66 
Break, new born year, on glad eyes 

break 124 

Brief life is here our portion 12 

Brightest and best of the sons of the 

morning 66 

Brightly beams our Father's mercy. 226 

Brother, hast thou wandered far. . . . 253 

Burden of shame and woe 250 

By cool Siloam's shady rill 66 

Calm on the bosom of thy God .... 78 

Calm on the listening ear of night . . 255 

Children of the heavenly King 41 

Christ for the world we sing 183 



PAGE 

Christ, the Lord, is risen today. ... 35 

Christian, dost thou see them 5 

Christian, seek not yet repose 72 

City of God, how broad and far. . . 263 

Come, every pious heart 46 

Come, Holy Ghost, in love 183 

Come, Holy Spirit, come 38 

Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine. . . . 215 

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove . 26 

Come, labor on 108 

Come, Lord, and tarry not 97 

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare. . . 45 

Come, said Jesus' sacred voice 54 

Come, see the place where Jesus lay 58 
Come suddenly, O Lord, or slowly 

come 260 

Come Thou Almighty King 35 

Come, Thou desire of all Thy saints 37 

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing 50 

Come, Thou long expected Jesus. . . 35 

Come to our poor nature's night ... 91 

Come unto Me, ye weary 160 

Come, we who love the Lord 26 

Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye 

languish 64 

Come, ye souls, by sin afflicted 55 

Come, ye thankful people, come. . . . 103 
Come, ye that love the Saviour's 

name 37 

Crown Him with many crowns 81 

Dark is the night that overhangs my 

soul 162 

Daughter of Zion, from the dust ... 61 

Day by day the manna fell 72 

Dear Friend, whose presence in the 

house 254 

Dear Jesus, ever at my side 115 

Dear Lord and Father of mankind . 270 

Dear Lord and Master mine 123 

Dear refuge of my weary soul 37 

Dear Saviour, if these lambs should 

stray 178 

Deem not that they are blessed alone 240 

Depth of mercy, can there be 35 

Do not I love thee, O my Lord 30 

Down life's dark vale we wander. . . 230 

Earth below is teeming 105 

Eternal Father! strong to save 143 

Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round 266 

Ever patient, gentle, meek 72 

Far from the world, Lord, I flee . . 48 

Father, beneath Thy sheltering wing 257 

Father, here we dedicate 145 

Father, I know that all my life 124 

Father in heaven, to Thee my heart 245 

Father of all, from land and sea. ... 89 

Father of love, our guide and friend 107 

Father of mercies! in Thy word .... 37 
Father Thy wonders do not singly 

stand 259 



276 



FAVORITE HYMNS. 



PAGE 

Father, to us Thy children, humbly 

kneeling 253 

Father, whate'er of earthly bliss ... 37 

Feeble, helpless, how shall 1 245 

Fierce was the wild billow 4 

Fight the good fight with all thy 

might 105 

Fling out the banner, let it float . . . 199 
For all the saints who from their 

labors rest 135 

For all Thy saints, O Lord 63 

For the beauty of the earth 154 

For the dear love that kept us 

through the night 258 

For thee, O dear, dear country 12 

For Thy mercy and Thy grace 119 

Forever with the Lord 62 

Forgive, O Lord, the doubts that 

break 185 

Forth in Thy name, O Lord, I go. . 35 

Forward! be our watchword 103 

Fountain of grace", rich, full, and free 73 

Free from the law 229 

Friend after friend departs 62 

From Greenland's icy mountains. . . 66 

From the cross uplifted high 49 

Gently, Lord, O gently lead us 188 

Give to the winds thy fears 19 

Glory to Thee, my God, this night. 20 

Glorious things of Thee are spoken. 44 

Go forward, Christian soldier 146 

Go, labor on, spend and be spent. . . 97 

Go not far from me, O my strength 125 

Go to thy rest, fair child 216 

Go work in my vineyard 220 

God calling yet — and shall I never 

hearken 28 

God hides Himself within the love . 268 

God in the Gospel of His Son 38 

God is love, his mercy brightens. . . 78 

God is the refuge of His saints 26 

God moves in a mysterious way 48 

God of the living, in whose eyes 147 

God of my life, to Thee I call 49 

God the Lord a King remaineth 77 

Grace, 'tis a charming sound 30 

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost 88 

Great God of wonders, all Thy ways 186 

Great God, the followers of Thy Son 242 
Great King of nations, hear our 

prayer 84 

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah. . 40 

Hail, all hail the joyful morn 62 

Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord 46 

Hail, Thou once despised Jesus. _. . . 42 
Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad 

morning 188 

Hail to the Lord's Anointed 61 

Hail to the Sabbath day 249 

Hail, tranquil hour of closing day. . 179 

Hallelujah! 'tis done 230 

Hark! Hark! my soul! Angelic songs 

are swelling 113 

Hark! hark! the organ loudly peals. 132 

Hark, my soul, it is the Lord 49 

Hark! ten thousand harps and voices 58 

Hark! the song of Jubilee 61 

Hark! the sound of holy voices 89 

Hark! what mean those holy voices. 63 
Hath not thy heart within thee 

burned 250 

Have you on the Lord believed 230 



PAGE 

He has come! the Christ of God. ... 97 

He hides within the lily 268 

He is coming, He is coming 129 

He is gone: a cloud of light 116 

He knelt: the Saviour knelt and 

prayed 78 

He leadeth me! O blessed thought. . 220 

He sendeth sun, He sendeth shower 86 

Heal me, O my Saviour, heal 132 

Hear the heralds of the Gospel 176 

Hear us, Thou that broodest 132 

Hear what God, the Lord, hath 

spoken. . . .' 49 

Hear ye the glad good news from 

Heaven 229 

Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to 

face 97 

Ho, my comrades, see the signal . . . 227 
Holy Ghost, come down upon Thy 

children 115 

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Al- 
mighty 65 

Holy offerings, rich and rare 105 

Holy Spirit, Lord of light 10 

Holy Spirit, Truth Divine 261 

Hosanna to the living Lord 66 

How are Thy servants blessed, O 

Lord 23 

How beauteous were the marks di- 
vine 205 

How blest the righteous when he 

dies 54 

How blest the sacred tie that binds 54 

How blest Thy creature is, O God . . 48 

How calm and beautiful the morn. . 188 

How gentle God's commands 30 

How happy is the pilgrim's lot 31 

How precious is the Book divine ... 52 

How shall I follow Him I serve .... 73 
How sweet, how heavenly is the 

sight 55 

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 44 
How sweetly flowed the gospel 

sound 78 

How tedious and tasteless the hours 45 

How vain are all things here below. 25 

Hushed was the evening hymn 131 

I am so glad that our Father in 

heaven 226 

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard 

Thy voice 236 

I bow my forehead in the dust 271 

I do not ask, O Lord, that life may 

« be 139 

I feel within a want 244 

I gave my life for thee 158 

I heard the voice of Jesus say 96 

I know not the hour when my Lord 

shall come 226 

I know that my Redeemer lives 35 

I lay my sins on Jesus 95 

I love Thy kingdom, Lord 169 

I love to steal a while away 170 

I think, when I read that sweet story 

of old HO 

I was a wandering sheep 96 

I worship Thee, sweet will of God. . 114 
I would not live alway ; I ask not to 

stay 196 

I'll praise my Maker while I've 

breath 26 

Immortal Love, forever full 270 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES. 



277 



PAGE 

In heavenly love abiding 124 

In the cross of Christ I glory 77 

In the dark and cloudy day 90 

In the morning I will pray 244 

In this glad hour when children meet 242 

In time of fear, when trouble's near 188 

Inspirer and hearer of prayer 54 

Is not this our King and Prophet. . 107 

Is thy cruse of comfort wasting. ... 148 

It came upon the midnight clear. . . 255 

It is finished! Man of sorrows 248 

It singeth low in every heart 267 

Jerusalem the golden 12 

Jesus, and shall it ever be 41 

Jesus calls us o'er the tumult 130 

Jesus came, the heav'ns adoring. . . 132 

Jesus, engrave it on my heart 51 

Jesus, I my cross have taken 80 

Jesus, keep me near the cross 237 

Jesus, lover of my soul 35 

Jesus, Master, whose I am 159 

Jesus, merciful and mild 189 

Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone. ... 41 

Jesus, my Saviour, look on me 72 

Jesus, name of wondrous love 135 

Jesus of Nazareth passeth by 229 

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun . . 25 

Jesus, the very thought of Thee. ... 11 

Jesus, these eyes have never seen. . 182 

Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts. . . 183 

Jesus, Thy name I love 85 

Jesus, where'er Thy people meet ... 49 

Jesus, while our hearts are bleeding 188 

Joy to the world! the Lord is come. 26 

Joyfully, joyfully onward we move . 232 

Just as I am, without one plea 71 

Just as Thou art; to me, a child. . . . 184 



Knocking, knocking, who is there . 



203 



Laborers of Christ, arise 216 

Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace 67 
Late, late, so late ! and dark the 

night, and chill 100 

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encir- 
cling gloom 82 

Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us . . 73 
Lead us, O Father, in the paths of 

peace 257 

Lead us with Thy gentle sway 78 

Let our choir new anthems raise ... 87 

Let party names no more 38 

Let saints on earth in concert sing. 35 

Life of Ages, richly poured 263 

Lift your glad voices in triumph on 

high 241 

Light of those whose dreary dwelling 54 

Light of light, enlighten me 24 

Like Noah's weary dove 198 

Little drops of water 94 

Lo! on a narrow neck of land 35 

Look and live 229 

Look from Thy sphere of endless 

day 241 

Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious 57 
Lord, as to Thy dear cross I flee ... 84 
Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing. 52 
Lord God of morning and of night . . 136 
Lord, her watch Thy Church is keep- 
ing 118 

Lord, I am Thine, entirely Thine. . . 186 

Lord, in this sacred hour 250 



PAGE 

Lord, it is good for us to be 117 

Lord Jesus, are we one with Thee. . 85 

Lord Jesus, when we stand afar. . . . 135 

Lord, lead the way the Saviour went 200 
Lord, my weak faith in vain would 

climb 182 

Lord of all being, throned afar 251 

Lord of mercy and of might 66 

Lord of morning and of night 136 

Lord of power, Lord of might 132 

Lord, speak to me, that I may speak 159 

Lord, Thy glory fills the heaven. ... 63 
Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise 

Thee 194 

Love divine, all love excelling 35 

Lowly and solemn be 78 

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned. . 46 
Make channels for the streams of 

love 92 

May the grace of Christ, our Saviour 45 

Mercy, O Thou Son of David 45 

Mighty God, while angels bless Thee 50 

More love to Thee, O Christ. 193 

Mortals, awake! with angels join. ... 51 

My Country! 'tis of Thee 218 

My faith looks up to Thee 181 

My Father's house on high 60 

My God, accept my heart this day. 81 

My God, how wonderful Thou art. . 114 

My God, is any hour so sweet 72 

My God, my Father, while I stray. . 71 

My heart is resting, O my God. .... 124 

My heavenly home is bright and fair 232 

My Jesus, as Thou wilt 24 

My sins, my sins, my Saviour 105 

My song shall be of mercy 118 

My times of sorrow and of joy 38 

Near the cross was Mary weeping . . 190 

Nearer, my God, to Thee 86 

Nearer, O God, to Thee 135 

New every morning is the love 76 

No human eyes Thy face may see . . 264 

Now be the gospel banner 188 

Now on sea and land descending. . . 262 

Now on the gladden'd sight 176 

Now the day is over 151 

Now the laborer's task is o'er 147 

O, come and mourn with me a while 115 

O, could I speak the matchless worth 51 

O day of rest and gladness 88 

O, for a closer walk with God 48 

O for a thousand tongues to sing. . . 35 

O for the happy days gone by 115 

O grant me Lord that sweet content 46 

O grant us light, that we may know 145 

O gift of gifts! O grace of faith 113 

O God, beneath Thy guiding hand. 178 
O God of Jacob (Bethel) by whose 

hand 30 

O God! Thy power is wonderful .... 114 

O God! our God! Thou shinest here 123 

O happy day that fixed my choice. 30 

O help us, Lord; each hour of need. 74 

O, it is hard to work with God 114 

O holy, holy, holy Lord 73 

O holy Saviour, Friend unseen 72 

O how the love of God attracts .... 115 

O Jesus, ever present 144 

O Jesus, I have promised 118 

O Jesus, King most wonderful 11 



278 



FAVORITE HYMNS. 



PAGE 

O Jesus, Lord of heavenly grace ... 3 

O Jesus, Thou art standing 134 

O Light of life, O Saviour dear 136 

O Light, whose beams illumine all . 128 

O little town of Bethlehem 208 

O Lord be with us when we sail .... 91 

O Lord, I would delight in Thee .... 55 

O Lord, my best desires fulfill 49 

O Lord of heaven and earth and sea 88 

O Lord of hosts, whose glory fills. . 121 

O Love divine, that stooped to share 251 

O love of God, how strong and true 96 

O love that will not let me go 162 

O Master, let me walk with Thee . . 185 
O, mean may seem this house of 

clay 123 

O mother dear, Jerusalem 17 

O North! with all thy vales of green 241 

O one with God, the Father 135 

O Paradise, O Paradise 115 

O praise our God today 126 

O quickly come, dread Judge of all. 145 
O sacred Head, now wounded. ... 11, 189 

O sacred Head, surrounded 125 

O saving victim opening wide 13 

O Spirit of the living God 61, 106 

O suffering Friend of human kind . . 250 

O Thou, before whose presence 161 

O Thou, by long experience tried . . 22 
O Thou, from whom all goodness 

flows 49 

O Thou, in whose presence my soul 

takes delight 55 

O Thou not made with hands 137 

O Thou, the eternal Son of God 160 

O Thou, the contrite sinner's Friend 72 

O Thou, to whom in ancient time . . 243 
O Thou, who dri'st the mourner's 

tear 64 

O Thou, whose bounty fills my cup 102 

O Thou whose tender feet have trod 131 
O Thou whose own vast temple 

stands 240 

O timely happy, timely wise 76 

O what, if we are Christ's 125 

O where are kings and empires now 205 

O where shall rest be found 62 

O who like Thee, so calm, so bright 205 

O Word of God incarnate 135 

O worship the King all glorious 

above 67 

O'er the gloomy hills of darkness. . . 39 
O'er Kedron's stream and Salem's 

height 243 

Of all the thoughts of God that are. 98 

Oft (or much) in sorrow, oft in woe 70 

On our way rejoicing 105 

On the mountains' top appearing. . . 58 

One in Royal David's city 129 

One holy Church of God appears. . . 262 

One sweetly solemn thought 272 

One there is above all others 44 

Onward, Christian soldiers 151 

Onward, Christian, though the region 263 

Onward, onward, men of heaven. . . 216 

Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed 62 

Our country is Immanuel's ground. 54 

Our Father, God, who art in heaven 215 
Our Friend, our Brother, and our 

Lord 270 

Our God! our God 1 Thou shinest here 123 
Our God, we thank Thee, who hast 

made 139 



PAGE 

Our Saviour bowed beneath the 

wave 215 

Over yonder, over yonder 230 

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour 237 

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark 

world of sin 142 

People of the living God 62 

Praise God from whom all blessings 

flow 20 

Praise, Lord, for Thee in Zion waits 80 

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven 80 

Praise, O praise our God and King. 126 

Praise the Lord, His glories show . . 80 

Praise to God, immortal praise 54 

Praise to the holiest in the height . . 83 

Praise to Thee, Thou great Creator. 52 

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire. . 61 

Quiet, Lord, my froward heart 45 

Rejoice, ye pure in heart 127 

Rescue the perishing 234 

Return, O wanderer, to thy home. . 188 

Ride on, ride on in majesty 74 

Rise, crowned with light, imperial 

Salem, rise 27 

Rock of Ages, cleft for me 53 

Roll on, thou mighty ocean 73 

Round the Lord, in glory seated. . . 63 

Safe home, safe home in port 120 

Safe in the arms of Jesus 233 

Safely through another week 45 

Saviour, again to Thy dear name we 

raise 146 

Saviour, blessed Saviour 132 

Saviour, breathe an evening blessing 73 

Saviour, more than life to me 235 

Saviour, sprinkle many nations .... 204 

Saviour, when in dust to Thee 67 

Saviour, who Thy flock art feeding . 198 

Say, sinner! hath a voice within. . . . 178 
Say, where is your refuge, my 

brother 237 

See Israel's gentle Shepherd stand . . 30 
See, the Conqueror mounts in 

triumph 89 

Seeking to save 229 

Servant of God, well done 60 

Shepherd of tender youth 2 

Show me the way, O Lord 106 

Sing of Jesus, sing forever 58 

Sing to the Lord a joyful song 104 

Sing to the Lord our might 80 

Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness! 148 
Singing for Jesus, our Master and 

Friend 158 

Sinners, turn! why will ye die 35 

Slowly by Thy hand unfurled 243 

Softly fades the twilight ray 219 

Softly now the light of day 199 

Soldiers of the cross, arise 135 

Sometimes a light surprises 49 

Son of God, to Thee I cry 63 

Songs of thankfulness and praise ... 89 

Souls of men, why will ye scatter. . 116 

Sow in the morn thy seed 62 

Stand up and bless the Lord 61 

Stand up! stand up for Jesus 191 

Standing by a purpose true 230 

Still, still with Thee, when purple 

morning breaketh 202 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES. 



279 



PAGE 

Still will we trust, though earth 

seems dark and dreary 257 

Still with Thee, O my God 131 

Stop, poor sinner, stop and think . . 45 

Strong Son of God, immortal Love . 100 

Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear. 76 

Sunset and evening star 99 

Sweet is the work, my God, my King 26 

Sweet is the work, O Lord 62 

Sweet is Thy mercy, Lord 105 

Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go . . 115 

Swell the anthem, raise the song . . . 168 

Take my life and let it be 157 

Take the name of Jesus with you . . 220 

Take up thy cross, the Saviour said 203 

Tell it out among the heathen 157 

Ten thousand times ten thousand . . 103 
That mystic word of Thine, O Sov- 
ereign Lord 202 

The chariot! the chariot: its wheels 

roll in fire 75 

The Church's one foundation 161 

The day is gently sinking to a close. 89 

The day is past and gone 213 

The day is past and over 4 

The day of resurrection 7 

The day of wrath! that dreadful day 14 

The day Thou gavest , Lord , is ended 1 47 

The day, O Lord, is spent 121 

The eternal gates lift up their heads 130 

The glory of the spring how sweet . 124 

The hours of day are over 148 

The God of Abraham praise 43 

The Great Physician now is near. . . 232 
The Head that once was crowned 

with thorns 58 

The King of love my Shepherd is . . 126 

The Light of the world is Jesus .... 230 

The Lord is come! in Him we trace. 117 

The Lord is King, lift up thy voice. 72 

The Lord my pasture shall prepare. 23 

The Lord my Shepherd is 26 

The morning light is breaking 219 

The old year's long campaign is o'er 162 

The radiant morn hath passed away 132 

The roseate hues of early dawn .... 130 

The rosy light is dawning 189 

The shadows of the evening hours. . 140 

The Son of God goes forth to war.. . 66 

The spacious firmament on high ... 23 

The voice that breathed o'er Eden . 77 

The way is long and dreary 140 

There is a book who runs may read . . 77 

There is a fountain filled with blood 49 

There is a gate that stands ajar. . . . 220 

There is a green hill far away 129 

There is a happy land 92 

There is a land of pure delight 26 

There is a safe and secret place .... 80 

There is an hour of peaceful rest. . . 177 

There is no sorrow, Lord, too light. 102 
There were ninety and nine that 

safely lay 149 

They who seek the throne of grace . 214 

Thine are all the gifts, O God 270 

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old. . 128 

Think well how Jesus trusts Himself 115 

This is the day of Light 147 

Those eternal bowers 6 

Thou art coming, O my Saviour ... 159 
Thou art gone to the grave; but we 

will not deplore thee 66 

Thou art, O God, the life and light . 64 



PAGE 

Thou art the way: to Thee alone. . . 199 

Thou Grace Divine, encircling all . . . 206 
Thou knowest, Lord, the weariness 

and sorrow 109 

Thou, Lord, art love — and every- 
where 130 

Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me. . 16 

Thou say'st Take up thy cross 136 

Thou my everlasting portion 237 

Though we long, in sin-wrought 

blindness 137 

Thrice holy Name! that sweeter 

sounds 137 

Throned upon the awful tree 146 

Through the day Thy love has 

spared us 58 

Through the night of doubt and 

sorrow 151 

Through the valley of the shadow I 

must go 230 

Through this changing world below. 235 

Thus far the Lord hath led me on . . 52 

Thy home is with the humble, Lord 113 

Thy seamless robe conceals Thee not 267 

Thy way, not mine, O Lord 96 

Till He come: O, let the words. .... 143 

'Tis midnight, and on Olive's brow. 177 

'Tis my happiness below 49 

To Thee, O dear, dear Saviour 105 

To Thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise 159 

To Thee, my God and Saviour 49 

To Thee, our God, we fly 135 

To Thine eternal arms, O God 265 

To our Redeemer's glorious name . . 37 

Triumphant Zion, lift thy head .... 30 

True-hearted, whole-hearted 159 

Upward where the stars are burning 97 

Vainly thro' night's weary hours. . . 62 

Vital spark of heavenly flame 26 

"Wake the song of Jubilee 178 

Walk in the light, so shalt thou 

know 67 

Was there ever kindest shepherd. . . 113 

Watchman, tell us of the night 77 

We are living, we are dwelling 205 

We ask for peace, O Lord 140 

We ask not that our path be always 

bright 258 

We give Thee but Thine own 135 

We love the venerable house 246 

We saw Thee not when Thou didst 

come 84 

We sing the praise of Him who died 58 
Weary of earth and laden with my 

sin 161 

Welcome happy morning, age to age 

shall say 5 

We've no abiding city here 58 

What is this that stirs within 244 

What various hindrances we meet. . 49 

When all Thy mercies, O my God. . 23 
When cold our hearts, and far from 

Thee 105 

When doomed to death th' apostle 

lay 241 

When gathering clouds around I 

view 67 

When God of old came down from 

heaven 77 

When Jesus comes 230 



280 



FAVORITE HYMNS. 



When marshaled on the nightly- 
plain 70 

When on Sinai's top I see 62 

When our heads are bowed with woe 74 

When shall we meet again 219 

When the day of toil is done 148 

When the weary, seeking rest 96 

When this passing world is done. . . 108 
When Thou, my righteous Judge, 

shalt come 34 

When thro' the torn sail the wild 

tempest is streaming 66 

When wild confusion wrecks the air 168 
When winds are raging o'er the up- 
per ocean 202 

When wounded sore, the stricken 

soul 130 

While shepherds watched their flocks 

by night 22 



While Thee I seek, protecting Power 56 

While with ceaseless course the sun. 45 

Who are these in bright array 62 

Who is on the Lord's side 159 

Whosoever will may come 229 

Why, dearest Lord, can I not pray. 115 

Wilt Thou not visit me 259 

With joy we hail the sacred day ... 62 

Workman of God, O lose not heart. 115 

Wouldst thou learn the depth of sin 105 

Ye trembling souls, dismiss your 

fears 38 

Yes, for me, for me He careth 97 

Your harps ye trembling saints .... 54 



Zion stands with hills surrounded . . 
Zion, the marvellous story be telling 



58 
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